The Ghost Beside Me
by Nobody's Love
Summary: Link's peaceful life in Ordon Village is interrupted by some strange events and the visit of an unknown presence from another dimension. But is it totally unknown to him at all? Will Link find out who -or what- is targeting him? TP scenario. - ON HIATUS
1. Illusions

_Disclaimer: The Legend Of Zelda franchise is anything but mine._

_A/N: Hello readers! Here I am again with another attempt at a Zelda fic. Before you proceed, this is how it goes. The story takes place in the Twilight Princess game scenario, but it can be read as a pre game or post game fic. Either way, I'll try to not to mention anything about the plot or the game play to avoid falling in any of both ends. This is a little different from what I usually like to read and write, __, but believe me, this is going to work.  
_

_As with my other stories, any errors and mistakes that may have slipped here are mine and mine alone, and I'm too lazy to find a beta-reader. Shame on me._

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**_A Legend of Zelda fanfiction_**

**_The Ghost Beside Me_**

**_Chapter 1: Illusions_**

It was the first sunny hours in the morning. The sun already said hello to the earth and its rays filtered through the tree branches and leaves, announcing the full arrival of the hottest season of the year. A soft breeze toyed with the pollen that the flowers expelled, the short grass waved softly as it passed over it. It also relieved the heat that was intensifying day by day, little by little.

Link was sitting on the balcony with his legs dangling playfully over the ledge, enjoying his breakfast. He bit a chunk of his bread spread with Summer butter while curiously watching every tiny movement in the air; from a falling leaf to some flying bug. His attention was often drifted away by Epona, his horse. Epona was untied from her usual spot. She was pacing around the place, her head low, pasturing by the grown grass around the tree house.

Walking toward Link's house ladder, Epona raised her head and fixed her dark eyes to her young master. Link was drinking milk from his cup when Epona made a low sound. He leaned forward to spot his horse staring at him. "Hey girl," Link greeted her after gulping some milk. "Are you done yet with your breakfast yet?"

Epona kept staring at him.

_I guess she is._ He thought.

Link chuckled. He knew Epona very well. She was playful, loyal and a hard worker. Epona had been part of his life since practically forever; since he had use of his memory. How did the horse come to his life, it was not a subject that bother him, not at the moment. The important thing is that they've always been there for each other and that alone is enough for him.

Link took another bite from his bread. The horse below snorted more loudly. Link leaned over again to see his horse, she kept looking at him. Or at least it looked like she was. It took him a moment to realize that Epona was no looking at him, but at his hand.

"Do you want some of this?" Link asked. Epona's eyes brightened instantly at the question. He looked at the last bite of bread in his hand. It was delicious and it would be a mistake not to eat it entirely. But his pet's desire to taste her master's tiny banquet and her innocent eyes were too much to resist.

He threw the remaining piece of bread to Epona's side. Epona went to it search immediately, bending her head and grabbing it with her mouth. The horse chewed the meal feverishly. Link laughed at the view. "Do you like it, huh?"

Epona neighed cheerfully to Link in obvious happiness, passing it to Link immediately.

The young man stood up from his spot and rubbed his hands against each other to shake away any crumbs left on them. He came down from his house porch, took the horse seat from the ground and placed it on Epona's back.

It's time to go to work Epona," Link said. "We are going to the woods today."

Rusl and Link accorded some days earlier to go to Faron Woods early in the morning to cut some wood logs so they could be used to feed the fire of their homes' fireplaces. The place had tall trees and fallen logs that could be used to that purpose. The recollected wood can also be used to build new houses and stables. When Rusl asked the young man for his help, Link accepted with pleasure, knowing that working with a person who he trusted blindly could be even funny.

Link exited his home site walking with Epona walking by his side and her reins in his hands. They hadn't walked a few steps when Epona hurried her pace, almost pulling Link from the reins. Link Tried to halt her. "Hey, slow down. There's no hurry, we are still early." Link said to his horse.

But the horse kept pulling him by the reins. It seemed that Epona wanted to arrive at Faron Woods some time before scheduled. Or perhaps was something else.

"Come on Epona, take it easy." Link talked to Epona like talking to any other person. He looked at the long trail that leaded away from Ordon Village and to Faron Woods. It was grassy, empty of stones and other obstacles. Besides the occasional chirping of birds, it was quiet all around. Good enough for some speed too…

"Do you want to race a little bit?" Link asked his horse while stroking her horsehair.

Epona neighed, nodding to him.

Link smiled. "Okay then. Do not get used to it, thought."

Link mounted his horse and secured his feet in the horse seat. He held the reins tightly in his hands. Maneuvering himself in a comfortable position, he looked forward and measured the distance ahead. He didn't even start it and he was feeling the rush all over him. It was so exciting.

"Are you ready?" Link said to Epona, patting her neck lightly.

Epona neighed again.

"Okay. You asked for it." Link breathed deeply. "Ready?"

What kind of question was that? Epona was always ready.

"GO!!"

Epona's legs exploded in an instant burst of speed. The horse ran fast, her horseshoes resonating on the ground as they pulled the dirt and small pebbles behind them. She ran as if there was no future for any of them.

"Yay! Ha ha!!" Link screamed out in pleasure. He couldn't contain the effects of his adrenaline flowing through his system. The sound of the air passing by his head, the wind pulling his hair away from his face… It was too good to let it pass by without enjoying it at full blast. In a blink of an eye, they were leaving Ordon Province and entering Faron Province.

As they passed by Faron Spring, Link's eye corner caught something. Before leaving it behind, he turned his head and saw a woman near the spring. She appeared to be kneeling close to the water. She was blond.

_Uli._

"Stop, Epona, stop!" Link screamed at his horse as he pulled the reins in his hands. Gradually, the horse came to a full stop some meters away from the spring entrance. "Wait here. I want to say hello to Uli." He said as he dismounted Epona.

It was weird. He didn't noticed Uli coming to the spring while he was sitting in his house porch. Perhaps she went to do some laundry or other things before he was even out of his bed. Either way, it was good to cross paths with such a sweet lady, so he wouldn't waste the chance.

Link walked to the spring, almost ran, anxious to see Uli. "Hi, Uli!" He said as he entered the spring site.

But his cheerful expression slackened when he saw nobody there. He stopped his pace when he saw no sign of Uli or anybody at sight. It looked as if nobody had been there in a while. Confused, he looked around the place. There were no tracks or footprints in the ground. In fact, he perceived no presence there and he felt quite alone. He scratched his head absently; he could have sworn that he saw Uli kneeling in front of the water. Perhaps the velocity and his own excitement made him saw something – or someone – that was not there.

He scratched his head absently and sighed. He felt relieved that nobody was actually there to see him blush from embarrassment because of his little act. He gave one last look to the place; the pond was full of water, vegetation and vines were at its greenest and the flowers around looked colorful and happy. Everything was in place for him.

He left Faron Spring. He approached Epona and mounted her once more. "False alarm, Epona. Now, let's get to the woods. Slower this time, okay?"

Obeying her master, he and Epona headed to Faron Woods.

* * *

Although it was still early in the morning, Faron Woods' environment looked like it was afternoon, or close to evening. Very little sunlight filtered through the almost dry branches from the trees. Instead of colorful birds and bugs, some suspicious Guays flied over the place, but far from the ground. The forest felt cold and was very silent. The occasional shrieks of a couple of squirrels playing around the green parts of the place filled the woods with some needed noise.

It was a perfect place for wandering spirits to live.

"Hey Link!"

Link was sitting on the ground when a man called his name from behind. He turned his head and smiled when the figure of Rusl came into view. He brought his own horse to the place along with a wooden cart wheel that was pulled by the animal.

Link stood up quickly and shook away any dirt on his clothes. "Hi Rusl. I hope I came on time."

"You arrived before me. What can be better than that?" Rusl said cheerfully. He went to the cartwheel and took out an axe from the various tools he brought along with him.

"Are you ready for some hard work today?" Rusl asked as he threw the axe to Link. He grabbed it with both hands without hurting himself.

Link smiled at him. "Yes, I am ready."

The next hours were the toughest that Link had ever worked on. The first hour consisted in inspecting which trees could be turned as logs for fire. After marking the trees with some paint they proceeded to chop them down. The trees fell with speed and lifted dust when they met the ground with a strenuous noise. Later the trees were tied to the horses with rope for them to pull them and transport them to a better place to be chopped. After that, the 'good stuff' began. Chopping the trees into smaller logs took a great amount of time. Both men lifted their axes and cut the logs until the resulting pieces were smaller and easy to carry. It was a tiresome job, and despite the light coldness that reigned at Faron Woods, their bodies were covered in sweat.

Link stopped several times to wipe out with the back of his hand the sweat that ran down his forehead. Each time he did so, Rusl asked him if he was feeling tired. He also told him that he could rest and proceed once he felt better. But all those times Link assured him that he was good and could continue doing his task.

It was a little past midday when the last chopped logs were loaded into the cartwheel. In the end both Link and Rusl were exhausted, but quite satisfied. They could finish it with no major difficulties.

"Uff, what a day. My back's sore!" Rusl said as he stretched his back. "I bet you are tired, too."

"Nah, not much." Link half lied. Most of his body was sore putting some extra energy to the chopping job, but it was nothing he could not endure for a little longer.

"Really? Well, we can make another round chopping more wood if you want."

_No! No more for today!_ His mind screamed. Link was going to reply, but stopped when his mouth was about to say something he would regret later. "Eh, come to think about it, my neck hurts a little." He said in a faked hurting tone as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Ow…"

Rusl laughed at him. "Ha ha ha! You cannot hide how you feel from my eye. If you are tired, you must rest. There is no need to exhaust yourself more that you can handle, alright?"

Link nodded. It was true. Rusl was very observant and have eyes like an eagle. Much like his wife Uli, he could even perceive his mood and condition from miles. Rusl and Uli always treated him like one of their family, and that was something he could never repay as long as he lived.

"Now Link, let's get this load to the village." Rusl said as he patted Link's shoulder. "You can come by my house and have dinner there. You will be welcomed, as always."

"Thanks Rusl. I will consider it." He took Epona's reins and headed to Ordon Village with Rusl and the cartwheel ahead of him.

A sudden strong breeze hit the young man as he walked away, brushing away some strands of hair away from his face. The wind whistled, and the sounds entered Link's ears and made it impossible to ignore. It whistled loudly, but in Link's head, it sounded more like a whisper, a loud whisper that also carried some inaudible monosyllables that called for some stranded person somewhere.

It was almost like a voice, a voice that got carried away by the strong wind and never made it to the right ears.

At first, Link thought someone was calling him, or someone else there. He stopped momentarily and turned to the woods behind him. He looked around and as far as his eyes could reach. Every thing was still and lightly foggy. The wind was not blowing anymore and the sun light kept filtering through the trees. No moving life form was there.

He frowned. First it was Uli's image near the spring, and now he heard some sort of voices somewhere around him. It was the second time in a day that he imagined things that obviously where not there. Is something happening to his eyes and ears? Were those the effect of getting old?

"Link, are you coming?" Rusl called from the distance.

"I'm coming." Link shook his head and headed to Rusl's side. Perhaps his weariness was making those things appear somehow. But he ignored it at the moment. He was sure that after a warm bath, some rest and a good meal, it would be another anecdote to tell to his friends and laugh about later.

TBC...

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_A/N: Like it? Hate it? Leave a comment if you get a chance. They will be greatly appreciated and considered._


	2. Forgotten Memories

_Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda. This is just for fun and not for profit._

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**_The Ghost Beside Me_**

**_Chapter 2: Forgotten Memories_**

The room walls were painted in shades of white and cream colors with some drawings hanging from them. The drawings were childish, painted with scarce but brilliant shades of green, blue, and red. A shelf in one of the walls stored a variety of toys, clothes, and diapers. A crib was placed in a corner of the room, rocking chair on one side and a night table with a chandelier on top of it on the other side. On the opposite wall a tall, simple wardrobe contained more clothes, toys and other things. All of which were locked on with a silver key. A big, round rug made of colorful hemp covered the floor in the center of the room.

Some small squared blocks were scattered all over the rug. Different letters and images where carved on every side of each cube. A small hand touched one block gingerly before grabbing it. The small hand brought it into his mouth and licked it with his tongue. When the wet tongue discovered that the wooden toy had no flavor and was not comestible, the owner took it away from it and decided to play with it instead. The hand put the block over another block, then he put another block over another to from a three-story tower.

The little boy giggled expressing his sense of accomplishment. He built a tower, his own tower, just like big people do!

Faint coughing sounds resonated from some other room to the boy's small kingdom. His turned his head from his sitting spot, his giggles stopped. The door was opened, and more coughing were heard somewhere beyond that door. Full of curiosity, the boy put his hands on the floor and turned his fragile body. He crawled his way out of the room as fast as his short legs allowed him to move.

He crawled a considerate distance until he came near a fireplace. As he crawled, a pair of feet came into his view. He stopped about a meter away from the feet. More coughing sounds, this time they came from the person in front of it. The toddler sat and looked up, glancing the woman whose back was toward him. She seemed to be attending something inside the fireplace, maybe some food in a cauldron, which drew all of her attention.

The toddler gurgled, and called for the woman's attention. The woman turned to the boy on the floor. When she looked down, her eyes glinted like stars in the night, and a big smile decorated her smooth, young face.

"Oh sweetheart, you are here!" The blond woman said cheerfully to the boy. "Did you make the tallest block tower ever, huh?"

The boy's blue eyes stared at her.

She knelt in front of him and made full eye contact with him. "I am making dinner, sweetie. Are you so hungry that you cannot wait any longer for it?" The woman asked him in a playful tone.

The boy kept staring the lady in front of him. She had dark, blond hair that reached past her shoulders. Her hair was pulled back with a pink ribbon to avoid the loose strands of hair to fall over her forehead. Her eyes were green like emeralds. Despite the light, purple circles under her eyes, her face reflected compassion and care.

The little boy knew that woman. She was the only one he knew. And she made him happy.

The toddler shrieked and laughed excited as he extended his arms toward the lovely lady in front of him. He offered his widest smile his mouth could ever afford.

"Aww, come here my precious baby." The lady took the toddler in her arms and lifted him. She hugged him while she hummed a child lullaby to the small person in her arms. She stroked his back and head gently, comforting him.

The boy felt incredibly happy in her arms. He wrapped his arms around her neck and sunk his face in her soft shoulder. Her skin was fragrantly sweet, like fruits. Succumbing into that sea of softness and confidence, he closed his eyes and thought of nothing but his guardian, who whispered caring words to his ears. He felt safe.

"I love you, Link."

* * *

Link woke up when the morning sun rays broke inside through his window and bathed his face. When he opened his eyes, he noted that he was laying on his side in his bed, hugging one of his two pillows tightly against his chest. He let go of the pillow and stood up, letting out a big yawn. While stretching out his arms and back, parts of his dream came to his head. He remembered dreaming about toy blocks and a rug in a floor. He looked at the round rug in his room. He could not remember if it was the same as in his dream, but that was of little importance right now, as well as what he dreamed anyway.

He was about to get ready to go to Ordon Ranch when he remembered that it was Saturday. Nobody in the ranch or the village worked on Saturdays. He thought the lack of work would made him bored throughout the day, but was relieved that a resting day finally arrived, since he worked so much in both the ranch and by helping Rusl in Faron Woods the other day.

After washing up, having a little breakfast and taking care of Epona, Link found himself back in his house with practically nothing to do. He stood in the middle of the room and looked around, trying to find something to occupy him. While looking, he saw the small corner of his house that led to the cellar. He didn't remember when was the last time he went down there. It must be dirty, full of dust, hairballs and rodents. In addition to that, he didn't know what was been stored in the cellar. Since he had no other significant task to do, he decided to take the day and clean up the cellar.

Link climbed down the ladder with three oil lanterns in his hand since there was no natural light entering the place and it was almost pitch black. He lit them all and placed them in different places so the light that emanated covered most of the cellar. When he could finally see the cellar at full, he almost cried in dismay. The cellar was so disorganized and dusty that he though would take him forever to clean it up. There were rolled-up wallpapers inside a flower vase in one corner and about five or six boxes were stacked in another corner. The shelves that occupied an entire wall had all sort of things: tools, more unmarked boxes, even a music box. Some furnitures were placed one over another and covered with blankets that were covered with cobwebs at the same time. Link surveyed the place with his jaw opened. Where did all come from? And how so many things ended up there in the first place?

Sighing, Link took a broom and began sweeping the floor.

* * *

He didn't know for how long he'd been there, the only thing he knew was that the whole cleaning session kept him very busy. He was surprised by how may things where stored in his house cellar. He started with the wall shelves. Most of the things there were exposure in dampness and were damaged in some way. Old chandeliers with melted candles, cooking tools, pieces of paper… He could not give any use to them and decided to throw them away, except for a dirty, silver key that he found inside the music box, which he put in one of his pockets. For that, he placed them in a box.

He then proceeded with the boxes. Most of them were full of fairly old clothes; men's and women's. The colors were faded by time and were full of holes and mold, not to mention that all of the pieces stunk. He returned them to the boxes to throw them away.

Now, the furnitures. They did not occupy most of the cellar space but decided to also take care of them. Link retrieved the white blankets that protected them, tangling his fingers with the spider cobwebs. He shook his hands to get rid of it.

"Wow," he said under his breath as he uncovered the first piece of furniture: a rocking chair. It was old, but it still looked firm. He could not content the temptation; he sat down on the rocking chair, slowly and careful that it would not fall apart under his weight. The chair creaked when he sat down, but nothing broke. Link rocked himself slowly. He smiled as the rocking movement began to relax him and almost made him drowsy. But he knew that there're still a lot of things to do, so he stood up and continued with his shores. He then uncovered the other furniture, which was a crib. He touched it. He felt a small tingle run through his fingers. Who could have used that crib in the past? He decided to condone the lives of both the rocking chair and the crib to offer them to somebody who might need it later, along with the flower vases and a broken mirror frame. Maybe Uli of Pergie could use them.

Link stopped working and looked the newly organized cellar. It looked more pleasant to the eyes and smelt cleaner, no dust or bugs anywhere around. Ilia would be proud of him, since she complained that his house was a complete mess from time to time.

He was about to call the day off when he spotted another furniture covered with another blanket in a corner of the cellar. It was the largest piece of furniture in the cellar; it almost reached the ceiling.

"How didn't I notice this one before?" He asked to himself.

He threw the blanket away to reveal a fairly large wardrobe. It was made of wooden, probably the same material as with the baby crib and the rocking chair. He observed it for a minute before opening it. But when he tried the knob, it did not budge a bit. It was locked. He sighed in frustration. If there was something inside the wardrobe, he would have to break it or force the knob open, and he felt that he would regret it if he did that.

He looked at it once more, and noticed the key hole under the knob. He foolishly tried to introduce his small finger into the keyhole and worked it as a key, but to no avail. He almost kicked the wardrobe foot when he remembered that he found a key some hours ago while cleaning. He had a fat chance that it would open the wardrobe double door. But he would not let pass the opportunity anyway. He took it out of his pocket and introduced it into the key. Holding his breath, he turned the key.

_--Click--_

The small sound announced that the door was unlocked. He turned the knob, and the door opened. He felt a little disappointed when he saw that the wardrobe was almost empty. At least that was what he saw until his eyes came down to the wardrobe floor. There was a small box inside. But it did not produce any excitement in him.

_Great. More boxes…_

With no options left, he took the box out and placed it on the floor. He sat down and opened it, its content drawing half a smile on his face.

Toys. The box was full of toys. The first thing he saw was a wooden horse. It was brown, with black hair, and a red horse seat was painted on its back. He admired the toys beauty. It resembled Epona, an exact image of his pet. Next, he found a cream color teddy bear. Link shook away the light layer of dust that covered the fur. He didn't know how old was the animal plush, but it was torn or broken. In fact, it looked like new.

He kept searching the box like a little child, and found about a dozed blocks in the bottom of the box. He took them all out and held one on his hand. The six-side block was painted in different colors, with one letter of the Hylian alphabet imprinted on each side, except for one side, that had an emblem painted in yellow.

He put the block along with the others. He frowned when he noted that the emblem in the block was similar to the mark on his left back hand.

_Ha, what a coincidence._

He was about to put the toys back to the box when he saw the there where still some items inside. He took out what appeared to be a pictobox along with some pictographs. His eyes opened wide. It had been years since the last time he saw one of those. The lens was cracked; no way to repair it unless it was replaced by a new one. He brought the red pictobox to his ears and shook it lightly. It made clanking noises inside. Forget replacing the lens; the whole thing was broken. He opened it to find any pictographs inside.

He took out the pictographs in the bottom of the box and looked at them. To his dismay, most of the images faded out, leaving the squared papers almost white. He kept passing them, but every single one of them were useless; nothing could be made out of the pictographs. Those, like most of the items he found in the cellar were many years old, maybe older that him.

There was one pictogragh that was very well preserved despite all the years. He looked at it intently. In the pictograph, there was a young woman holding a baby in her arms. The image just showed her from the waist up, but her features could be distinguished with detail. To Link, she was very pretty, her smile ran from ear to ear, and a red bow decorated her golden hair. The baby in her arms was very small, perhaps a newborn. He was practically enveloped by a green blanket decorated with yellow lace. The baby's face and tiny hands barely stuck out from the fabric cocoon, but he was sure that it was a boy.

"Link!" a faint voice called his name.

He turned his head to the ladder, to the source of the voice.

"Link!" The same faint voice again. It sounded so far away that he could not recognize it; he had no idea whose voice was calling him. His gut jumped inside him a little when he remembered his little hearing episode in the woods the other day, when he thought he heard someone talking in his ear.

He was going to stand up from the floor when the voice called him again. "Link!"

It was coming closer. He wanted to call back, but he was afraid, which made no sense to him. He remained sat on the floor, still like a statue.

The voice stopped calling him, but he heard some steps up in the house.

_--Clop, clop, clop--_

Someone was climbing down the ladder, and was coming for him.

"Link, where are you?" The voice was much clearer now. It was a girl's.

He dared to open his mouth to reply. His voice trembled a little. "Hey…"

"Link?"

Link frowned. "Ilia?"

"Link," Ilia said when she reached the cellar floor. She stared at Link, who was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. "What are you doing here?"

"Eh," Link chuckled under his breath, relieved and he didn't know why. "I was cleaning."

"Really?" Ilia surveyed the place. "Well, it really looks clean. It is the cleanest cellar I've ever seen." She said to his friend on the floor. "I was on my way to the spring and I decided to say 'hi'. I called you from outside and since you did not answer I entered. Still busy?"

"Not really. I am finishing here with this." He said. "You have no idea how many things I have found here."

"It surely took you all day to put all in order." She observed. "Well, I better get going. Father is…" She trailed off when she saw the item in Link's hand. "Oh Gods, is that a pictobox?"

Link looked incredulously at the pictobox in his hands. He showed it proudly to his friend. "Yes, it is."

Link handed the pictobox to her. Ilia admired it speechless. "I have not seen one of this since I was a little girl." Ilia sat down on the flood by Link's side.

"So do I. But I don't know who this belonged to. It is broken."

Ilia looked at the toys was Link scattered over the floor.

"Those were your toys right?" She said while holding the wooden horse in her hand.

"I don't know. Perhaps they were. I don't remember any of them at all." He said. Actually, he did not remember very much about his early childhood at all.

Ilia took the pictographs. "They were on the box, along with the toys." Link told her.

She looked at them, passing them rapidly as none of them showed any images for her to see. "Hey, looks like this pictograph survived the passing years."

"Yeah, I think so."

"But who is she?"

"I thought maybe you could tell me."

She shook her head. "No, I don't know her. I've never seen her before." She spent some seconds in silence, surveying the pictograph. "She looks like Uli. The baby could be Colin."

"But can't be her." Link observed. "Those pictographs are very old. That can't be Colin. Besides, that pictograph was down here all the time."

"Hmm," Ilia kept looking at the image. "Maybe we should go ask Uli about this lady."

Link looked at Ilia quizzically. "Why?"

"She may know her, whoever she is."

"I don't see a reason to do that."

"Come on, Link. This is history. What if some other family lived here before you? Or ever before Father was born?" Ilia said very enthusiastic. "What if this baby is actually Rusl, or Fado?"

Link smiled at the hypothesis. "Well, you can ask anyone if you want."

"Me? Yes, I am going to. But you are coming with me." She said as she stood up with the pictograph in her hand. "Come on, let's go."

"What? We are going now?" He asked as he stood up, shaking away any dust from his pants.

"Why wait?"

Link looked down at the scattered toys on the floor. Those doubts about some persons' past could be clarified another day, but sometimes he just did not understand why Ilia hurry so much regarding some things, being the pictograph's mystery woman a clear example of that. Perhaps knowing about the past and family trees were like hobbies to her. It wasn't that it did not matter to him, but he found all those weird things about unknown people in his house, along his stuff. They were part of him now. It should matter.

"Eh, can I pick up these toys first. Maybe the Talo and the other kids at the village would like them."

Ilia smiled. "Okay, I will help you."

* * *

A knock in the door drifted Uli's attention from the task in her hands. She was sewing the second sock from a pair when the sound took away her concentration. She put the half-sewn sock away and stood up form the couch. Someone knocked the door again.

"I am coming," Uli called form inside. She opened the door and was greeted by the presence of two young persons. Two which she knew very well.

"Oh Ilia! Link!" What a surprise!" Uli greeted them.

"Hi Uli," Ilia greeted back.

Link smiled at the older lady and just waved her hand, leaving all the speech and greeting to his female friend.

"It is so good to see you. Please, come in." Uli said as she let the visitors enter her house.

"Thank you Uli. Where is Colin?" Ilia asked when he noted the unusual calmness of the house.

"He is with Rusl in the pond. He is teaching Colin how to use his new fishing pole." Uli informed. "Or at least that is what they told me. Perhaps Rusl is doing some sparing with him and did not tell me. He knows what I think about that."

"Yeah," Ilia giggle. Link only chuckled.

"So, what can I do for you? Can I serve you something to drink?" Uli gladly offered.

"Actually we are here because both Link and I want to ask you something." Ilia sail to her. "About something Link found. Don't worry, it should not take too long, I hope."

"Of course, anything. What is it?" Uli waited for any of them to speak, but only silence spoke for them.

Uli glanced at Link to speak and show her what he got. But Link just stood silently, seemly reluctant whether tell her about his new discovery or not.

Some seconds passed. None of them talked. Uli waited patiently.

Ilia could not wait any more and discretely hit Link softly in his ribs with and elbow. Link recoiled lightly.

"Ow…"

"Show her, Link." Ilia ordered him, whispering her words.

Link rolled her eyes and finally moved. He took the pictograph and unfolded. After flattening it a little, he handed it to Uli. "I was cleaning up the cellar and I found this."

Uli took the pictograph but did not look at it yet.

"When we saw the woman there, Ilia and I thought perhaps you or Rusl know her, since I think she should be about your age now."

After listening to the young couple, she finally looked at the pictograph. As soon as she looked at it, her soft features suddenly turned serious. Her eyes never blinked as she observed every detail in the pictograph in her hand. Both Link and Ilia watched as Uli seemed to be looking in complete silence at every tiny dot that she could find there. Uli swallowed hard. Ilia noted how Uli tried to hide her sudden distress, but she failed.

"So, do you know her?" Ilia broke the silence.

Uli tried to smile despite her sinking mood. "Yes, I know who she is."

"Really?" Link said.

Uli swallowed hard again, preparing her throat and her mind to what she was about to say. "Her name is Adryll." She informed them. She then turned it and showed the woman's pictograph directly to Link.

Link got confused by her action. He already looked at it, why was she showing it to him like that? Anyway, he looked at the pretty lady on it once more.

After a pause, Uli added, still holding the pictograph toward the young man's eye level. "Link, she is your mother."

TBC...

* * *

_A/N: How is it so far? Let me know what you think!_


	3. The Untold Story

_Disclaimer: As usual, previous disclaimers apply._

_A/N: Long chapter ahead. Also as usual, all mistakes and grammatical errors are mine and mine alone.  
_

* * *

**_The Ghost Beside Me_**

**_Chapter 3: The Untold Story_**

"What?" Link stared at Uli, feeling incredulous and dumb. He repeated those words countless times in his head, trying to fully comprehend what he just heard.

"And the baby in her arms is you, Link." Uli added as clearly as her own nervousness allowed her.

"_She is your mother."_

"…_your mother."_

_My mother? I have a mother?_

He looked at the pictograph speechlessly, at his newly appointed relative, the most important of all. A relative that he never knew existed at some unknown time in his life. The woman – Adryll – kept smiling in the pictograph, and for a moment he felt like she was smiling directly to him, her brilliant eyes showing how happy and whole she was then. And she was holding him. Him. Baby Link being held by… by who?

He felt out of place, his mind stopped functioning normally; a white void of memories and times that he did not remember happening.

"Uli, are you sure that she is… Link's mother?" Ilia asked, attempting to restore some of the sudden lost chattiness to the conversation.

"Yes, she is." Uli assured not only to her but also to Link.

"Where is she now?" Ilia asked her.

Uli shook her head. "She is no among the living anymore. She passed away many years ago, when Link was still a child." She said in a solemn tone.

"Oh." Deep inside, Ilia was trapped inside a whirlpool of emotions. That new revelation stirred more that her curiosity. Her knowledge about one of the most important persons in her life just made a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. If she felt that shaken, she could not imagine what was running through Links' mind. What was he feeling?

She looked at him. Despite the news, Link's expression looked barely unaltered. His eyes did not react instantly, but he barely blinked as he kept his sight directly to the pictograph. His lips were slightly open but silent, as if they were waiting for soundly words to come out of his throat. If Link was shocked, he was doing wonders by concealing it behind his neutral self.

Link remained silent, apparently hypnotized by the lady that in part was no longer a mystery to him. Any of the ladies in the house must have called his name a number of times before he looked up. His ears closed for some seconds before he could actually figure that Uli was talking to him.

The young man looked at Uli. "Um, sorry." He said timidly. "Did you say something to me?"

Uli smiled at him a little, understanding Link's silent confusion. "Come on, sit down."

Both Ilia and Link sat down on the sofa, while Uli sat in the armchair close to them. He placed Adryll's pictograph on the coffee table in from of her visitors.

"Look, I know you may feel confused by this. But everything has a story behind its origins." Uli started. She pointed at the pictograph. "This is no exception."

"Do you know her story?" Ilia asked.

Uli nodded.

"Can you tell us?"

"Link," Uli called. Link looked up; once again he found himself staring blankly at Adryll's image. "You all deserve to know what happened, but you deserve it the most. I will tell you her story only if you promise you will listen to it."

Uli was right, he deserved to know; he needed to know. But at the same time, he did not want to. Whatever were the events that took him apart from his mother, he was somehow afraid to listen to them. But he also hoped that whatever Uli has to tell would break down the wall that was preventing him from remembering.

Link sighed. "Okay. Go ahead."

Uli smiled again. She swallowed before starting, praying to the gods to give her strength to what she was about to say, to relive.

"Before Rusl and I came to live here in Ordon, we lived in Hyrule Castle's Market Town. Adryll was my best friend. Adryll and I worked at the Market Bar; Adryll as a waitress, me as a cook.

"Rusl and I were engaged, but Adryll was married to a good man named Koric. Along with Rusl, he was a fine swordsman and one of the King's most loyal soldiers in Hyrule Castle's Army."

"My father." Link said out of the blue, somewhat in awe, but not to anyone in particular.

"Yes, your father."

Another revelation, another shock. And a new person came into his life. A father. The faceless figure of his father. He didn't know what to expect next. Who was going to come out later, an uncle?

"Link?" Ilia called him. She placed a hand in his arm, pulling him away from his troubled thoughts.

"Uli, please continue." Link hurried. "I want to know more. I need to."

_Do I really want to know? Why would I want to?_ He thought.

Uli was looking at the pictograph in front of her, but her mind was appeared to be somewhere else. Her mind was back in Hyrule Castle, where a group of courageous people were making some important decisions; decisions that would later shape up the future of their homeland…

000000000000000

_It was late at night, and the stone-carved war room echoed the voices of the soldiers reunited there. The war room served as both the place to plot battle strategies and trace the movements of the menacing enemies, but also served as a resting spot for the worn out soldiers that spent hours defending the Castle's walls. The coming and going was constant and lasted day and night; as more soldiers went out to battle, more came to rest their weariness away along with their fellow comrades and friends. In war times, there is no time to lose._

_Hunched down in front of a big Hyrule field map, Koric stretched his neck to relieved the accumulate stress. The last hours had been tiresome for him; receiving orders from the King, following orders from the General, giving orders to the soldiers, making decisions about the next defense line and an effective attack plan… Being a server for the King and a defender of Hyrule required a great amount of dedication and time, not to mention the small sacrifices he must make. But there was no more gratifying feeling that to know that a humble man contributed to make hundreds of people feel safer and to have a better place to live. Despite the lack of rest, he knew that at the end of the road, the reward would be priceless: peace._

_A young man with a red hat approached Koric from behind him, his pace was quick and he looked like he was in a hurry. "Koric? Is anybody named Koric here?"_

_Koric turned to the man that called him, so did the other two men that were also studying the map along with him._

"_It is me." Koric said with an exasperated tone._

"_You have an urgent message, sir." The messenger took out a rolled up parchment and hand it to the soldier. His task done, he left the place immediately._

"_It must be another order from the King." The young blonde man, Rusl, said to Koric._

"_I don't think so, Rusl." The senior man named Auru, said. "The King's wife gave birth to his daughter barely two days ago. He informed that he would take at least five days off to take care of them." He touched his pointed mustache. "It looks more likely the General's."_

_Whatever the parchment content, whether it was about the raging war outside or anything else, it should be very important to be brought in the middle of a meeting. The unrolled the parchment and read its content. Just as he read it, both Rusl and Auru saw how Koric's eyes went wide open, his weary look disappeared from his face like magic, and his mouth contorted in a way that it was hard to tell if he was about to laugh or cry._

_He clenched the parchment in his hand and began to survey the place ecstatically. He looked like he did not know that to do in the following seconds. "Oh gods, I-I must… Oh…" Koric stuttered. "Auru, I must go now okay? I have to go."_

"_What?" Auru asked. Rusl frowned at his comrade's sudden behavior._

"_Take care of them! Send the next battalion in the next hour!" He shouted as he exited the war room. Auru and Rusl stood around the table confused and looking to each other._

"_Where are you going?" Auru asked, but Koric was already gone._

"_What was that all about?" Rusl asked to Auru. "Why did he leave in such a hurry? Leaving us and the rest like this…"_

_Auru let out a wry smile. "I don't know. But whatever it was, it must be for a good reason."_

"_What was that message anyway? That was what made him so excited." Rusl remembered._

_Auru noted that Koric, in his hurry, left away the parchment that he received from the messenger. It was on the floor, crumbled and dirty; some careless soldiers had already stepped on it. Auru bent over and took it on his hand. He flattened the parchment a little before reading it. Rusl also read it over Auru's shoulder. As they read, both soldiers could not contain the smile that the message brought to them, for it clearly explained Koric's reason to feel that way._

_Your son is born. Please come quickly to meet him!_

"_Ha ha ha ha!" __Auru laughed out. Rusl also laughed in the background. "He indeed had a good reason to go. The biggest reason of all."_

_000000000000000_

_The streets were unusually crowded, considering that a war and some ruthless outsiders were outside the Castle's gate. He ran like crazy through the people that roamed the Market Place. He stumbled against people's shoulders and stepped on others' feet in an attempt to reach his goal as fast as his own feet let him. He did not feel tired anymore, and the thoughts of enemies and clashing swords took a second place in his mind, perhaps lower. Now there was a brand new thought in his mind, and it was waiting for him back at home._

_It took him more than expected, but Koric finally made it to his house. As he crossed the door, a woman greeted him. She was washing her hands with some water from a vase._

"_Uli!" Koric exclaimed almost out of breath._

"_Koric!" The young lady replied. "You made it home really fast."_

"_Where is she? I mean, where are they?" He asked, his words coming out fast. "Are they okay? Please tell me they are okay."_

_Uli found his nervousness funny and she laughed a little. It was understandable. "Don't worry, Koric. Both Adryll and the baby are in the room. There were no major problems while she was giving birth. They are both doing great…"_

"_Can I see them?" He almost didn't let Uli finish._

"_Of course you can! Go ahead."_

_Koric was smiling from ear to ear. Unconsciously, he embraced Uli in a hug in his state of joy. She was caught unprepared for that, but she understood a second later. He reciprocated his somewhat fierce hug with a more gentle one._

_Uli was his wife's best friend. They had always helped each other when any of them need it. But this time was different. She helped Adryll while she was in labor and also was taking care of her, and that was something he would always be grateful of. "Thank you Uli."_

"_There is no need to say that." She said as the broke the hug. "Now go. Your family is waiting."_

_Still smiling, Koric headed to the room were his family awaited. Family. The mere mention of the word thrilled him to his bones. What he longed for so long had finally come true._

_He opened the door as quietly as he could to stifle any creaking sounds. The room was well lit by several oil lanterns placed in every corner of the room. A big dresser rested on a wall and the crib he crafted while Adryll was still pregnant was placed on the opposite side. The bed he shared with Adryll was straight ahead from the door, from where he was standing._

_His wife was laying on the bed, her back resting against a set of pillows. She was holding the newborn in her arms, watching him intently and stroking the scarce hairs in the boy's head. It appeared that she hadn't noticed Koric's presence in the bed room._

"_Adryll…" Her name escaped her lips as a whisper, but it was loud enough to made her raised her head to the noise, startling her slightly._

_Her eyes shore when she saw Koric's frame standing by the door. "Koric! You came!" She exclaimed from the bed._

_Koric only kept looking at them, smiling. He did not move from his spot, he did not dare to move and he didn't know why._

"_Here, come closer." She encouraged him, tapping one side of the bed._

_He blinked several times before walking toward them. She knelt by the side of the bed and immediately fixed his eyes on his son. Koric observed him for a minute. The baby was sleeping and was covered with a green cotton blanket. His tiny hands were grabbing the edges of the blanket's golden lace. A few little hairs decorated his head, and his lips were thin and had a pinkish tint on them, just like his mother._

_He was his perfect son, the most beautiful baby he'd ever seen._

_Koric exchanged glanced with Adryll, who was smiling and was just as excited as him. Her blond hair was a little damp – perhaps with sweat – and was pulled back with a pink handkerchief over it. Her light brown eyes reflected some degree of weariness due to the hours she spent on labor, and her skin looked a bit pale. But even in that state, Adryll's beauty remained unaltered. And the creature in her arms only added some kind of celestial aura to her appearance._

"_Look at him, he looks just like you." She said. "He's got your eyes."_

"_Um, I think it is too soon to say that." He replied nervously. He looked at the baby again as he pulled a chair and sit by Adryll's bedside "He is so beautiful. He definitely inherited your looks."_

"_Now that is a little too soon to assure that," the new mother giggled. "Do you want to hold him?"_

_He looked at him, his smiled faded slightly. "I-I don't know. I am too dumb, I might hurt him."_

"_Oh Koric, do not say that. How can you hurt him? You are his father."_

_Koric remained silent._

"_Come on, you need to lose that fear. He is not going to hurt you, isn't he?"_

_He sighed. With extreme caution, he held the baby in his arms. "Just watch his head." Adryll instructed softly. He was unused to care for babies, and he felt so afraid that even his most delicate actions could break him. "See, it is not that hard."_

"_He is so small," Koric muttered to himself as he repositioned himself in the chair. As soon as the biggest movements ceased, the baby began to move. Fearing that the baby would wake up and cry, he began to rock him softly in his arms. The newborn indeed wake up, but did not cry. The boy opened his eyes as he yawned soundlessly. The baby boy linked his big eyes with his father's. Adryll was right, he inherited his father's eyes. They were full of life and as blue as the morning sky. The baby watched the older, lightly stubbed face hovering over him, and his small lips moved, as if saying hello to his father for the first time. At that moment, Koric's eyes watered._

"_How will you call him?" Adryll asked suddenly._

_Of course, his son needed a name. He was so concentrated thinking and dreaming awake that he forgot about the name. "How would you like to call him?"_

"_Umm," she mumbled, thinking. "Well, since he is a boy, I thought it was fair enough for you to choose his name."_

_He looked at the baby again. He hoped that his son's name came carved somewhere in the baby's face, or anywhere. Seriously, which man-made name is appropriate for such a wonderful baby? An ordinary name would not fit him. He spent the next minute thinking of a name. He almost prayed to the gods to shred some of their grace over him, for his mind remained blank. Another minute passed, and his prayer was answered._

"_No names come to your mind?" The young mother asked._

"_Link."_

"_What?"_

"_Link," he repeated absently. "I would like to call him Link." He did not know where that name came from, but after certain amount of time, that name just pop into his mind. There was no explanation for that._

"_Link," Adryll echoed, then she smiled at his husband and then to her son. "Alright. Let's call him Link." She said aloud. "Link will be his name."_

_Koric leaned closer to Adryll and kissed her tenderly on her forehead. "I love you Adryll."_

"_I love you too, Koric."_

"_And I love you too, little fairy." He said as he pocked the baby's nose softly._

_Baby Link smiled and his eyes grew larger._

_The bedroom door opened, and a bunch of cheery people erupted inside. The couple turned their heads, and smiled when several of their friends entered the room. Their voices filled the room immediately._

"_Hi Adryll! Congratulations!"_

"_Congratulations to you too, Koric!"_

"_Where the baby? I want to see the baby!"_

"_Ah, my friends!" Koric exclaimed. He recognized some of his soldier comrades on the spot. Even Rusl and Auru were among them. He also recognized some of Adryll's friends from the bar, like Telma and her mother, who owned the bar. Uli also entered the room with them. "How did you know…?"_

"_You left the parchment behind," Auru interrupted. "I could not resist the temptation to read it."_

"_Indeed, you left the war room like a jumping grasshopper." Rusl added._

"_I am so sorry about that," Koric apologized. _

"_It was nothing," Rusl said modestly._

"_What is his name?" One of the soldiers said from behind the crowd._

"_Does he have a name yet?" Another unseen person asked._

"_Yes, his name is Link." Adryll said proudly._

"_So, look at him, guys! He is Koric's living pictograph." Rusl said._

_Everyone in the room was either saying "hi" to baby Link or taking short turns to stroke Link's hair or to play with his fingers. Despite the cheery chat and conversation - and oddly enough - baby Link did not show any signs of fear. He stayed awake all the time, and he occasionally offered a smile to any face that looked funny to him or to any ticklish touch._

_Those were happy moments for both Adryll and Koric, and they kept those memories close to their hearts._

0000000000

"Koric stayed at home for a week following Link's birth, until he was called back to battle. I can still remember Koric's face when he held Link in his arms." Uli took a break from the story. "Eventually, the whole Castle Town found out about the birth. Those were happy moments around the castle in the middle of so much turmoil; both Link and Princess Zelda were born around the same time. Such coincidences..."

"It certainly was. And that war… I'd never heard of that before. Now I understand Rusl's protective nature toward Colin." Ilia commented. "But that was back in the Castle Town." Ilia observed. "How did they end up here in Ordon Village? And when?"

Uli breathed deeply. She looked at her hands, they were trembling slightly. The story was not over yet. "It was four months later, after…" She trailed off and did not finish the sentence.

"After what?" Ilia pressed her, but she regretted it almost immediately when she noted Uli's growing distress reflected on her face.

"Uli?" Ilia called. All of the sudden, Uli was trembling, and some tears were threatening to fall. Why was that?

"Uli?" Link called this time. Uli lifted her gaze from her hands to his eyes. He looked worry. "Please Uli, continue. What happened to my m… I mean, to them?"

By looking at Link's boyish face, Uli retrieved some courage from within. The story was not over yet. She rubbed her eyes to remove the tears off her eyes. Here comes the hard part. After all those years, she could not forget the time when her friends' lives changed so drastically, forever.

00000000000

_Fireworks illuminated the sky as the night drew closer over Hyrule Castle. Music from trumpets and jingle bells added more rhythms to the chanting crowd that filled the streets. The news traveled fast from the King quarters to the rest of the civilians. The enemies retreated some hours ago and they were leaving the field and the castle's surroundings. After months of battle and uncertainly, the war was over, finally over._

_Adryll watched the celebrating crowd from her house's open window. The happiness outside was very contagious, and she let the feeling to enveloped her whole. She was cuddling baby Link on her shoulder as she danced along with the music around the living room; her hair floated in the air as she moved gracefully._

"_Did you hear that Link?" Adryll talked to her son. "The war is over! That means that your dear Father will soon return home! Haven't you heard more wonderful news than those, my boy?"_

_Two months had passed since Koric left his home and returned to the battlefield. He was a soldier and he – along with many men – was needed to defend Hyrule from hostile intruders. His job frightened Adryll constantly, but protecting people was his life, and she could not do anything about it. If that made him happy, then she was happy too. But now with the war over, Koric would come back home really soon, and both of them together, along with Link, would finally live as the happy family she always dreamed of. She felt whole._

_After her burst of happiness diminished substantially, she put baby Link in the crib. She tucked him with his favorite green blanket and kissed him on his forehead. "Sweet dreams, Link." Adryll said softly. The baby boy smiled, showing his toothless gums, then he closed his eyes and fell asleep immediately. "My little fairy," She whispered._

_She was retrieving a cup of tea from the night table when someone knocked on the front door._

"_I'm coming!" She said from the distance. More knocking sounds came from beyond. "You can come in!" She called again as she lowered the intensity of an oil lantern in the room._

_When she hurried to the foyer, the visitors were already inside her house. She smiled when she recognized Rusl and Auru. Two other soldiers she did not know were with them. "Oh hello there! What a surprise! Please, come in." Adryll welcomed them in her usual tone._

_The quartet took their war hats off their head when Adryll came into view. "Hi Uli," Auru saluted back in an almost flat tone._

_The lack of emotions on Auru's voice worried her, but she made her best not to make her concern noticeable. She surveyed the men in front of her. They were still on their war clothes which were torn out on several parts. They were dirty and looked visibly tired. She also noticed some purple bruises on the men's faces._

"_So, what brings you here my friends?" Adryll tried to add some good mood to them. She offered her best smile, after all, they deserved it. "Can I offer you something?"_

"_Adryll," Rusl said as he strongly gritted his hat in his hands. Suddenly, all men were afraid to look at her in her eyes. They all stared at the floor as if the house host face was carved on the floor. The weariness on their faces was now replaced by some sort of grieving expression. Adryll swallowed hard. Something was not right, she felt it the moment these men arrived at her house._

"_What's going on?" Her question sounded innocent, but her mind was racing. She had to ask, since the absence of certain person in the group of friend could not be ignored, especially to her. "Where is Koric?"_

_At the mention of Koric's name, one of the soldiers shut his eyes tightly, as if it caused him some kind of pain. A single tear rolled down his dusty cheek._

_Adryll could not hide his distress any longer. The suspense was killing her and her hands began to lose sensitivity. A strangled sob escaped her throat when she tried to speak. Nobody was talking to her. They were mute and her seemly simple question was not being answered by their silence. The image of his beloved husband flooded her mind._

_But sometimes, silence was the best form of communication._

"_Auru..?" Her voice shook. She urged anybody to talk to her. She was beginning to succumb into panic and hysteria._

_Auru had no other choice but to meet her eyes while the others kept their heads low. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it quickly, not only to moist his lips with his tongue, but to choose the correct words to use for what he was about to reveal. "Ma'am," Auru started, his own emotions betraying him._

_Adryll's soft features were contorting slowly. She was a smart woman; she should know by then the reason they were there. But that was not her job. As painful as it would be for everyone there, Auru had one last job to do before returning home. "I regret I am here to inform some bad news to you."_

_Adryll's chin quivered, then her hands went numb, and the ceramic tea cup she was holding in her hands fell from her fragile grasp. It shattered loudly on the floor in pieces, and so did her life._

0000000000000000000

"Koric was killed in battle the very last day of war. Rusl was there when that happened. The King gave his condolences to her personally. He was buried along with the other fallen soldiers in different burial grounds throughout Hyrule field."

"That is so sad. They had such a bright future ahead and it ended up so tragically." Ilia lamented. As she spoke, the knot in her throat thickened. It was so overwhelming. "What happened to Adryll after that?"

Uli looked at Adryll's pictograph. "I've never saw her so sad in my life. They loved each other so much. Only Link brought light to her in the middle of her depression. Since then, Link became everything for her. But even that was not enough to dissipate her grieve. One month later she became very sick."

"Sick?" Ilia asked. "How so?"

"At first, we thought it was just a common cold. But it did not go away, her coughs grew more constant. The town's doctor revised her and he said that her illness was treatable, but incurable."

Ilia gasped. How bad things turned out to be for that poor lady? Her story was getting so tragic that she wondered if she could listen to the rest of it.

"But of course we were not going to accept that. Not even her. By that time, Rusl and I were getting married and planning to move from the Castle Town to Ordon, Rusl's home village."

"And that was when you offered her to come with you." Ilia said, more like a statement than a question.

"That's right" Uli nodded. "Adryll refused at first, but we kept telling her how this could be a new beginning to her and Link. We were sure that a new environment was going to do her some good, in addition that it would give her some peace to her spirit, and hopefully her illness would go away. It took some time, but Adryll finally accepted. She then was very optimistic and enthusiastic about the idea. And so, four months after Koric's passing, we parted to Ordon Village." Uli pointed to the pictograph. "This pictograph was taken the day we arrived."

After so heart-wrenching events, things were starting to look up. Ilia almost sighed in relieve. "Did she like living here?" She asked.

Uli smiled as she remembered. "Oh Ilia, it was the best thing that could ever happen to her. Eventually, her mourning over Koric stopped and her mood lighted up again little by little, day by day. Major Bo offered her the house on the tree for not a single rupie, and she accepted it."

_My house._ Link thought. _She lived in my house._ That definitely explained all the things he found in the cellar: the crib, the rocking chair, the pictographs…

"She lived so happy for the next years." Uli continued. "She tended the crops, planted some seeds, we even did the laundry together. She got over the tragedy that afflicted there and went on with her life. Even her coughing fits were lest constants. And all that was with Link by her side. His laughter, his games with the squirrels, and the way he used his finger paints… Every little action was a reason for her to celebrate life."

Uli stopped there. Her mouth felt kind of dry after telling so many things to the young people sitting in front of her. In a matter of two hours, she just revealed to them a past that she never wanted to hide, but also a past that one of the persons she cared the most was alienated completely from.

When Uli took a break, Link stared at the pictograph on the coffee table. If his mind was blank before knowing everything he just heard, now he felt completely lost. _I cannot remember. I don't remember any of that._ He thought, confused. Although his brain absorbed every single word Uli told him, nothing seemed to stick to him, some part of him didn't allowed him to. Everything was so… unreal. Even when the identity of the woman was no longer a secret, he felt that she was still a stranger to him.

"How did she die?"

The women turned when Link entered the conversation once more. Their stares made Link feel awkward; the same feeling the got when Uli first mention the phrase "your mother" to him.

"Uh, I mean…" Link cleared his throat, giving him some seconds to rephrase his question. "You mentioned that she died, no?"

"Yes," Uli gave him a sympathetic look.

"And how was that?" He asked.

"All of the sudden, her coughing fits started again. They grew in frequency to the point that she began to expel blood in every cough. Despite the potions and medicines, she did not get any better, it was quite the contrary. Adryll got very weak and she began to suffer from fevers frequently. Those things continued to happen for some weeks, until one morning when she couldn't get out of bed." She explained to the young man in front of her. "Somehow she knew that her days were coming to an end. She was ready to accept her fate, but her biggest worry was you, Link. You were only four years old. The fact that you could be alone after her passing terrified her more than her own death. I remember one night when Rusl, Major Bo and I were taking care of her, she expressed her fears to us. We promised her that no matter what happens to her, we would take care of you. After she got rid of her burden, she felt relaxed and we all noticed that change in her. After that, she felt asleep. She did not wake up the next morning."

There was a pause. It seemed that nobody dared to say anything as Uli finally ended the narration. Everything had been told, what else could be added to that?

"At least," Ilia said in a low voice. "At least she died in peace."

There was another pause.

"But… where is her gravestone?" Ilia added later. "If she was buried somewhere in Ordon, I would like to visit her."

Uli shook her head. "There is no gravestone, not even a grave for that matter."

Ilia's eyebrows frowned in confusion. Link lifted his eyes to Uli which he kept staring at his lap almost all the time.

"In her deathbed, Adrylll made us promise that no mourning place would be erected in her name, not even for her son to mourn when he grew older. She didn't want anyone of us to cry for her either; she told us that her spirit would always be among us, and especially with Link." Uli said.

The young man locked his eyes with Uli's at the mention of his name. His bright eyes pleaded her to reveal what happened to Adryll's body, but deep inside he wanted her to stop. In fact, all the time he'd been there he'd been praying for Uli to finally stop that incredible and forgotten story for once.

"After paying our respects, her body was cremated. Her ashes were dispersed over Lake Hylia. She was devoted to the Spirit Lanayru." Uli said.

Uli placed a hand over Link's crested hand. She lifted his chin up with her other hand, forcing him to look at her. "Link, I don't pretend you to understand all this or to accept everything right now." Uli said truthfully. "With all this, I want you to be sure that you were the gods' ultimate blessing upon her. She loved you so much. She lived for you, sweetie. After her demise and while you were growing up, it was also a little piece of Adryll's that kept growing inside of you."

Link didn't say anything at first. He just kept looking at Uli, as mute as he was most of the time. "Well, I am here." He muttered. "And I think you raised me well. I mean, all of you." He gave a little smile to indicate that he was good.

Or at least he pretended to be. He said he was okay, but he knew very well it was a lie.

TBC...

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_A/N: Share your criticism with me. I'm a grown-up girl, I can take them very well. Besides, I need them. Everybody needs them... Well, you got the idea. Read and review. Thank you!  
_


	4. Denial Brings Nightmares

_Disclaimer: The usual, nothing is mine._

_A/N: Thanks to** gamegirl07** for beta-reading this chapter. *Hugs*_

* * *

_**The Ghost Beside Me**_

_**Chapter Four: Denial Brings Nightmares**_

"Link," Ilia called him. But he didn't turn or give the tiniest sign that he heard her.

"Link?" She called again, but again no answer came. Link continued to walk away from Uli's house and the village. He was some steps ahead, his pace was somewhat unsteady and dawdling. His gaze was down, as if he needed to see his feet to walk properly and to not fall down. He looked like he was thinking or deciding about something. She wondered what was going on in his mind.

Seeing his friend's unusual mood filled Ilia with despair. Perhaps it was excusable; Uli had just uncovered a big part of his life that had remained unknown for all of them for quite a long time. When Uli revealed the story to both of them, she felt amazed and intrigued about that lost piece of memory. How did such a lovely story end up so tragically? And why did destiny deny a bright future to that new family – Link's family?

Now that the ever mysterious whereabouts of Link's family were no longer hidden, Ilia craved to know more, to satisfy her curiosity about the subject. She expected Link to feel the same – well, perhaps not as enthusiastically as she was, but she thought that Link, knowing now that he was not the lonely branch in his family tree, would like to fill himself with such knowledge. But to her dismay, he seemed barely affected. If he was hiding his true feeling behind his serene façade, he was doing an awesome job. She attributed his unusual mood to the manner the news was broken to him.

Anyway, she was going to interrupt his usual silence and find out what he was really thinking. She had done it before and she intended to do it again.

Ilia hurried a few steps to catch him. "Link." She said as she walked by his side.

Link kept walking. Silent.

"Link, please, say something. Anything." Ilia pressed. She hated being so persistent, but this time she needed to be.

"What do you want me to say?" Link said, his eyes fixed on every step he took.

"Well, you just found out about your mother, and that's just great." Ilia said smiling, trying to lighten his mood. "How do you feel about it? You didn't say much at Uli's."

Link did not reply immediately. In fact, it seemed like he did not want to reply at all. "I don't know."

"Come on Link, don't be afraid."

"I am not afraid." He said defensively.

"Then you can tell me." Ilia pressed.

Link was starting to feel annoyed by her. It was the first time he felt so harassed by her insistence. But if she wanted to know so much about his emotions, alright, he would tell her.

"So?" She insisted again.

"Nothing." Link said with no emotions embedded in his voice. "I feel nothing. I keep feeling nothing."

There was something about her friend's answer that made Ilia almost stop in her tracks. Perhaps it was the disheartened way he had said how he felt. "What? What do you mean 'nothing'? You've got to feel something."

Link shook his head as he couldn't think of the right answer for her question. "What do you want me to feel?"

"I don't know. Happiness, sadness, excitement, anger… Even confusion. It is not bad to feel that way."

"I told you, I feel nothing." Link said trying not to raise his voice at her.

Ilia was getting frustrated. As much as she knew Link, that was not the way she expected things to turn out. He was been uncooperative and very hard to reach out to. There was no doubt that the blow of the news hit him somehow, but he was in some kind of denial. Despite that, she did not feel discouraged. She decided to approach him from another angle.

"But Link, this is about your mother…"

"No!" He spat, almost shouting just as he turned to face her, cutting her short. "No, it is not." He recalled her in a lower voice.

Ilia just stared at him silently, but said nothing. It was the first time that Link shouted at her in some degree of anger. She didn't even recall when was the last time Link was angry at somebody. But the worst of all was that she provoked that sudden burst of anger. It was a bad idea, but it was too late to take back what she said.

"I have no family. I mean, my only family is you, Rusl, Colin… and the others. Not her. You should know that, Ilia."

"I don't doubt it, Link. Do you doubt Uli's words?" She asked.

"No, it's not that. It-It's just…" He shook his head furiously. He didn't know what to say. His emotions were finally coming forth from of his heart, but not the nice ones and certainly not in the best of ways. It was a disconcerting mixture, and he was not sure which one was the one that coursed through his mind. Link breathed hard and swallowed the small lump that unexplainably kept growing in his throat. He needed to control his thoughts, no matter how fast they ran inside him. "How will I accept that this… lady was a part of me when I have no memory of her? Besides, Uli and Rusl and who knows how many people knew about this all the time and I had to clean up my messed-up house to find out? They had no reason keep it from me for so long. They did not even leave a gravestone for anyone to mourn her."

She was forcing him to talk when he had no emotional energy to do so. Hoping Ilia would take the hint, he turned and continued to walk away from the village. But knowing her, it would take hours for her to let him be.

"But it was Adryll's desire, and perhaps I understand her." Ilia quickened her pace until she reached his side. "Don't be so rude to them. Think about it, maybe they kept this from you to protect you."

"Protect me?!" Link said, turning again and facing her, contorting his face in disgust and atonement. He looked directly into her eyes, his blue eyes locking onto hers. "Protect me from what, from a dead woman?"

"Link!" She gasped. Her mood changed from concerned to serious in a snap. "Don't talk like that. No matter what happened to her, she was your mother and you have to respect her, whether she is alive or dead." She pointed her finger to his face. She did not allow any disrespect to anybody. And as incredible as it sounded, Link was no exception. "How can you say that? It is not like you in any way."

Link shook his head again. No matter how much he kept shaking his head, the increasingly bad mood did not go away. He sighed exasperatedly. "It doesn't matter. It was me all the time by myself, since the very beginning. And no one else" He fixed his eyes and gave her a very unpleasant look to make her understand how serious and upset he was. "I have no mother. And I never had one."

He turned and kept walking, not caring if Ilia was still following him or not. Perhaps he finally made himself clear and she had subdued to his mood. If that was what happened, he did not regret doing do.

Link arrived home before he expected. He was about to climb up the ladder when he heard Ilia's voice again. In other situations, Ilia's voice should sound playful and sweet. But at the moment it was the opposite; it thundered in his ears.

"Link, listen to yourself. It is the anger in you speaking. Don't let it get into you." Ilia said, almost in a pleading tone.

Please… Link thought. He closed his eyes and breathe deeply in order to calm down his nerves and to put his thoughts in place. Turning to face her, he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came. It was like his spoken speech was giving all the reason to the other part. She didn't look angry at him. Despite Link's rant, she looked rather comprehensive with a hint of concern in her eyes, concern that he did not want from anyone.

"Link…" Ilia mentioned his name again softly.

Link waved his hand over her, urging her to stop before starting again. "This conversation is over." Link replied matter-of-factly. "Please just leave me alone." He could not look at her any longer and turned quickly to climb the ladder in front of him, praying that she would not follow him inside his house.

* * *

Link looked at his cellar content in front of him, unmoving. The oil lanterns that he lit up hours before were still burning and illuminating the reduced space. Now that the cellar was cleaner and more organized, the air was fresher and everything was easy to locate, even with his eyes. But from all the stuff stored there, he could not keep his eyes away from the objects that unwillingly had him already hypnotized.

He walked tentatively toward the big and old wardrobe to his side, where he found the box with the faded pictographs inside. The door was slightly opened; perhaps he forgot to close it when he left for Uli's house. He extended a hand to close it and noted that his hand was trembling. He closed his hand to a fist and opened it again, hoping that it would deter his nerves a little. Breathing courage in, he touched the armoire handle, and blinked, seeing a sea of white mist before him…

_It was a mess. He was dirty and he knew it, he felt dirty. His fingers were stained by dried-up paints and his clothes had some of it spattered on his chest. His cheeks were also stained by some green-yellowish color. But still he continued. He submerged two fingers in the green paint canister and applied carelessly on the piece of parchment on the floor. He pressed his small hand on the parchment, leaving a neat print on it._

"_Link!"_

_His name was mentioned somewhere afar by a mellow, then a coughing sound, but he did not acknowledged it. He kept making circles and doodles to his masterpiece._

"_Oh Link, look at you! You should learn how to use your paints without staining yourself!"_

_The toddler looked up, and the pretty woman was looking down at him with small disgust on her face. What did he do wrong this time?_

_He looked down at his drawing once more and pointed a red finger to it. The woman knelt beside him. "What have you painted this time?" She took the parchment and observed the colorful irregular patterns. Her face lit up with a smile. "Well this looks like a tree, isn't it my boy?" She kept looking at it. Her smile grew wider. "Oh of course, this is our tree house! Link you've just drawn our home."_

_Her contagious smile got the best of the boy as he giggled excitedly, clapping his hands and spattering a few drops on his clothes and face from doing it. She was right, he drew the tree house. In fact, she was always right._

"_This will surely compliment the living room walls perfectly," she said as she stood up and placed the parchment on a nearby table. "But for now, I'm going to wash you up."_

_She took a key from her skirt pocket and opened a polished wardrobe and began searching for something inside. The boy watched her intently, but with no idea of what she was doing inside that big box with doors._

"_There it is." She stepped back holding a neat, white baby shirt. "You will look so pretty in this one. The toddler reached for the shirt with a stained hand but the lady took it was quickly. "No no no. As I told you, you must be very clean before wearing it. Understood?"_

_She stroked his hair with a hand, her brown eyes big and full of caring…_

Link let go of the handle as soon as he was in control of his thoughts and immediately after the avalanche of images faded to black. His heart was beating a bit faster that usual and shivers swam inside his belly. He eyed the wardrobe one last time; it had become an ugly wooden door to an evil witch's house, waiting for somebody to show up and cook them on her charcoal oven. It disgusted him rather than terrified him. He found the thought incomprehensible yet justifiable. But he could not meditate those things with his mind as preoccupied as it was.

He shook his head and walked away from it, only to stumble over the rocking chair that was also stored in his cellar. He stepped back a little, and he found his eyes locked into the rocking chair. He kept looking at the inoffensive object which rocked back and forth with a creaking sound, not daring to move away from it or to blink. Yet, white fog was already filling his thoughts, his memories…

_He had never felt so good, not even his crib made him feel so comfortable. Up until now he realized that being embraced by this lovely lady was better than being in a crib, no matter how cushioned and fluffy it was._

_He was practically enveloped by a warm, soft blanket that covered almost all his small frame. In addition to that, the fabric he was leaning on was even softer and smelled sweet. There were some movements which surrounded him and made him feel calmer, even sleepier. And sounds; not the coughing sound he'd been hearing somewhere from time to time, but the sounds of music, like a song. A tender song._

_The baby let himself fall under the spell of such a beautiful lullaby, grabbing the soft fabric of his caretaker's clothes. The song transported him to a land of golden houses and crystal lakes, the rocking movements made him feel as if he was navigating through endless seas. His boat was her firm embrace._

Link gasped as he closed his eyes shut and opened them back. He saw the chair again which was still rocking and creaking in unison. His stare drifted to the crib, located beside the chair. A single drop of sweat dripped down his forehead, but he did not bother to wipe it away. The images were gone again, but a wave of dizziness took its place almost immediately. He tried to shake it away, resulting in him staggering back a few steps before the dizziness could dissipate completely. He breathed deeply until he was sure that he felt like his old self again.

"Liiiiinnnk…"

He turned his head quickly, startled. It was no more than a whisper, but he heard it loud enough to recognize it even over the rocking chair's creaking sounds. And it said his name. It brought very recent and almost forgotten memories to his mind, the memories from his work day in the woods.

The wind, the whisper, his name.

_Like in the woods, it was just like in the woods…_

He glanced to where he thought the source was coming. His guts jumped when he saw nothing but that idiot wardrobe. And nothing more.

He gave a quick glance to the cellar to assure nobody was there; he was really hoping that some flesh being actually called him. But he knew he was alone, and stared back at the wardrobe suspiciously. What if someone was inside the wardrobe?

As ridiculous as it sounded, it was a possibility; he was sure that somebody called him. Perhaps one of the village children – surely Colin or Talo - entered his house and wanted to play a joke on him. But he knew those kids very well. His house's cellar would terrify him and they would not dare to even climb down the ladder.

He walked slowly towards the wardrobe for a second time, ignoring the rocking chair and its annoying creaking. He stretched out his fingers before touching the handle. He took hold of his subconscious mind with all of his emotional strength, praying that it would not hit him with another round of weird images swimming in his mind. Determined, he reached the handle. His mind was clear, no dizziness. He sighed in relief, and not wasting any second, he ripped the wardrobe's doors opened as fast as his nerves allowed him.

The chair kept rocking and creaking in the background.

No one. Or better said, nothing. Except for the box full of pictographs and some loose dust, there was nothing there.

The rocking chair slowed its movement, the creaking ceasing with it. When Link glanced at the chair from over his shoulder, the chair stopped moving and it remained in its original position.

At that point, Link should have felt relieved, but no. Far from that, he felt dumb, embarrassed. His own house had played a joke on him, and he fell for it like an ignorant child. He imagined the walls laughing at him, pointing their fingers toward him in a mocking way. Before his boiling mood made him tear the place apart, he closed the wardrobe and stumped out of his cellar, not wanting to go back down there again.

Once out of the cellar, Link threw himself into his bed, mortified. He took one pillow and held it over his head with both his hands. He'd had enough in the course of one day: discoveries, revelations, weird experiences… He wanted that day to end, he urged himself to fall asleep and forget everything unwelcome to his mind. But even the silence around him brought everything back to him; the rocking chair, the trip to Uli's house, and the pictograph, that cursed pictograph.

He could not deny that the whole pictograph thing got to him from the very beginning. He felt confused and bewildered. The fact that in some time in his life he was held by his very mother caught him entirely unprepared. He never thought that there was a mother in the first place or, for a very short amount of time, a father. Even after Uli finished his mother's story, and as much as he forced his mind to, Link could not summon any memories of her. It was like she ever existed.

But what he did not entirely understand was the reason why nobody ever mentioned anything about her. Uli knew about it all the time, as well as Rusl. Even Mayor Bo knew about her existence. And yet no one mentioned anything; he grew up, learned to read and to mount his horse, and no entity in the village said a word about it. And what reason had Uli and Ilia given him?

"…_to protect you."_

Link groaned, irritated. That was the most stupid and unoriginal reason they could ever give him. What kind of protection did silence have to offer to a human being?

"…_you were the gods' ultimate blessing upon her. She loved you so much."_

Link groaned louder, but it was stifled by the pillow covering his face. No, that was a lie. It was not love, it was arrogance. From her, and from everyone. He began to have serious doubts about Uli's story and his own origins. There was no gravestone, and he could not verify if that woman was really dead. Perhaps she never existed and that story was some made-up fable to comfort him.

He retrieved the pillow from his face and reached for the folded pictograph from his pocket. He unfolded it and looked at it for the hundredth time. He watched Adryll's image intently; her face, her hands, the fragility of her frame… Nothing clicked on his mind, not a single spark of memories. She was not there.

Defeated, he placed the pictograph on the night table. He was wasting his time and racking his brain for a lost cause. He did not grow up with his mother, and he never needed her. The people in the village took care of him and that was enough. She was still invisible to him, still dead. Gone with the wind, forever.

"It was me all the time… by myself." he said to himself, echoing his harsh words to Ilia earlier. He remembered her surprised face when he had said that to her. She looked at him with glassy eyes as he discharged his disoriented feelings towards her. It was something that had never happened to him before even on his bad days. Even in his anger, Ilia seemed to understand when she mentioned that his antics were unusual for him. She offered him a moment to cool down, and he had rejected it.

He wiped his face with his hands. He felt his face flush red. Now he was ashamed. No matter how bad his day was or how messed up his feelings were, she did not deserve to be treated like that. It was not her fault, nor had she known any detail of his untold past; she was just as stunned when she found out about it too.

Link yawned. He shifted positions on his bed and was now laying on his side. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Tomorrow would be another day; he would apologize to Ilia for his erratic manners and most of what he'd heard that day would be forgotten for good.

* * *

_She was going to tuck in her son when he grabbed his hand and refused to let go of her. In order to calm him down, his mother sat on his bedside. The three-year-old boy slept fitfully, his head on her mother's lap._

_She was leaned on the small bed head. She was singing his favorite bedtime song while she stroked his hair. He felt a finger caress his pinkish cheek, the ticklish sensation made him smile in his semi-sleep state. He opened his eyes to see his mother's fingers. His eyes widened when he noticed the fingers roaming his cheek was not her mother's._

_They were not fingers, they were bones; yellow, putrid digits danced in front of his eyes. A frightened sob got caught in his throat when he lifted his head slowly. Instead of clean clothes, he saw raspy, dark grey fabric, like the fabric used to make potato sacks. It was torn apart on several places and looked very old and discolored._

_The little boy was paralyzed by fear; a stranger was at his side. He urged his eyes to see his mother's face, but it was not there. She was not his mother. Instead, a hooded figure was at his mother's place. Afraid but curious, he moved daring to see the stranger's face. A tear escaped his eye when he couldn't find any nose, or mouth. It had no face; it was a hollow, endless void beyond the hood. But it had eyes, or something like that. Two brilliant orbs floated where the eyes should be. They were frighteningly hypnotizing, and the boy wanted to look away, but he couldn't. It was as if his eyes were magnetically attracted to that horrible face._

_A ghost was beside him._

_He was starting to cry when the ghost leaned forward to him. The orbs in its face never stopped glowing. He tried to resist the pull, he fought like an endangered cub, but it was useless. The ghost was moving closer, and was going to eat him and swallow him whole…_

Link awoke with a start, gasping fiercely. His heart was pounding rapidly inside his chest. The bed's blanket tangled on his feet as he unconsciously fought to get away from his own bed. He reached his bed foot and turned to look at the bed head. There was nobody on his bed and the only sounds he heard were of his own heart and breathing. He looked around to be sure, but again, no one but him.

He ran a hand through his hair. He'd never had such a vivid nightmare before. He could not remember much of it, just that cloaked monster in the end. His breath quivered as the nightmare remnants and the blurry images of the mysterious figure roamed through his mind. His eyelids threatened to close and he forced his eyes to remain open. That ugly creature was too real and still too fresh on his mind and he did not want to see it again while he was supposed to rest. No hideous intruder was welcomed while he slept, not even in his dreams.

He rarely felt afraid; in fact, he was not afraid of anything, or almost anything. But that nightmare was a big exception and he didn't know why. He had gotten frightened by a lousy nightmare and now he could not avoid it. Everyone's gotten some nightmares from time to time, so why did he felt so overwhelmed by that one?

He looked out through his window. It was dark and the sun had set long hours ago. His wish had been granted; the day had already ended, but now he wanted the night to be over as well.

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_A/N: Better, huh? Well, now it's time for you to show me that you really care by sharing your comments and criticism with me_ :)


	5. Come Back Home

_Previous disclaimers apply in this and in future chapters._

_A/N: Special thanks to **gamegirl07 **for beta-reading this chapter. You totally rock!_

_Long chapter ahead. Hope you like it despite the lenght, but I like it that way ;)_

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_**The Ghost Beside Me**_

_**Chapter 5: "**__**Come Back Home**__**"**_

It was another sunny day in Ordona Province. The sun heated the mountains as the winds from the east flew over the green pastures that covered most of the land. The butterflies and dragonflies jumped from flower to flower in search of food and pollen. Flocks of birds flied and whistled their songs throughout the vast skies. The workmen woke up early for their everyday jobs and their women went to the province's spring to do the laundry and teach letters to their children. It was a good day so far.

However, it was not a good day for Link.

Link suppressed a soundly groan as he rubbed the nape of his sore neck. His neck muscles resented the action as he tried to focus on his work. Last night was a long one. After recovering from his nightmare, sleep eluded him for the rest of the night. He kept tossing and turning in his bed, feeling terribly uncomfortable. The bed felt damp and hard. He could not shake the idea that his bed was plastered with dirt. Giving up, he stood up from his bed, searched for a clean blanket and curled on an armchair placed on the wall opposite to his bed. It would never be as cozy as his bed was, but he was exhausted and needed to sleep, no matter where. And so he closed his eyes and tried to catch some sleep, with his unmade, nightmare-inducing bed staring at him.

It indeed brought him some needed rest, but he did not think about the consequences of sleeping in a rather small armchair. He fell asleep in an awkward position, and when he woke up, his neck was paralyzed; he could not move it. It took him precious minutes to get his neck back to its original position. He worked his neck slowly and carefully; small movements to one side, then to another, and lastly, slow rotations. As he moved it, he heard his muscles crackling and popping into place. It hurt immensely and it still hurt, but he could not let a lousy bad night get into his life. After he was sure his neck was not restraining his movements, he headed to Ordon Ranch like any other day.

Link thought that once he got back on his daily routine, all his pains would go away. Work was his therapy; it cleared his mind and allowed him to think about anything. And to have his mind busy most of the time was what he wanted that day, away from everything that reminded him of the day before. The story of his mo…– erm, that woman – and his argument with Ilia was still etched under his skin. It gave him goose bumps every time he remembered it. He thought that if he kept his mind focused on his job, his mood would not take a staggering turn again and he could make it through the end of the day.

His mind, however, could not stop thinking about the apology he owed to Ilia. He felt so much guilt that he planned to stop by Ilia's house after work to officially offer her an apology; it was the least she deserved.

Past midday, the last of the goats were finally inside the stable along with the rest. Now he just needed to check if the goats were inside the stable and he could finally go and see Ilia.

All of the sudden, a strong and cold wind blew over Ordon Ranch. It swept cacophonously through the tree branches and tall grass, and also sent Link's loose hair strands over his eyes. It was immediately followed by the loud sound of thunder behind the mountains. The earth under Link's feet rumbled when a set of noisy thunders struck again. Epona neighed, shaking her head nervously. Link looked up, ignoring his aching neck. Dark gray clouds were rapidly blocking the rays of the sun, turning the bright, warm afternoon into almost dusk and announcing that rain was coming forth. Lightning strikes were beginning to crack the sky in different sections; all that in less than a minute.

"Whoa," exclaimed Fado as he looked up, who was by Link's side at the moment. "Weather is really unpredictable; it is sunny one moment and in the other it turns all the way around. It is strange, though."

The wing blew again, stronger and prolonged than before; the sky was getting darker and gathering with clouds. A drop fell from the darkening sky and found home on Link's shoulder. He wiped it off, but the action was futile as more drops kept falling from above. A second later, a strong rain began to fall over the two men and the horse in the middle of the ranch. The rain caught them unprepared. It did not start like any squall; it hit them hard and heavy instantly. The fat drops were like tiny punches over their bodies.

Another blow from the wind hit them. The brunt of the wind caused the men to loose their balance and they stumbled on their feet. In addition to that, it was causing the heavy rain to fall sideways. Link was perturbed and rather confused; he'd never witnessed the weather being so erratic in so little time.

"It's a storm! Link, we have to get back to the village, now!" Fado said, almost shouting; the sound of the angry weather was swallowing his words. If they continued to stay outside with the rain as it was another minute, they would be blown away for sure.

He did not need to be told twice; he grabbed Epona's reins and ran to the village along with Fado. They were already soaking wet from head to toe, but the faster they got away from there, they would have less possibilities to catch a cold.

An even louder sound was heard from behind them. The clatter made both men turn their heads to the direction of the new sound. One of the stable's wood panels started to peel off from the roof. One end of the big panel was still nailed to the rest of the paneling, but more than the other half was floating in the air like a floating flag. As the weather worsened, the panel – along with the rest of the roof – was going to fall off soon.

"Oh no, the stable is falling down!" Fado yelled. "We are going to lose the goats inside!"

Fado was right, the wind was getting stronger by the second and it was threatening to tear the roof paneling apart. The walls were sturdy and he was sure that they could endure the tempest, but Link was not so sure about the roof anymore. If the roof was gone, the goats were surely going to be killed by the storm. And it was something that he would not allow to happen if he was able to prevent it.

He took Fado's hand and gave him Epona's reins. He had a plan in mind. "Fado, take Epona to the village with you!" Link said to Fado. Then he turned and ran toward the stable without further explanation.

"Wait… Wha-what…" Fado watched the reins incredulously before watching Link running away to the opposite side of the ranch's exit. "Where are you going?" Fado asked.

"I am going to fix the roof!" Link answered in the distance, still running.

"Fix it? No! You cannot do it by yourself! The storm will blow you away!" Fado tried to reason with him, but Link did not turn around.

"I will be alright, I promise!" Link yelled back, but the storm muffled his voice as he got farther away from Fado and his horse.

"But Link, it is too dangerous! Come back, now!" Fado called, but Link was already entering the stable, too far for him to hear him. "Link!" He called again, but to no avail.

He had no doubt that Link was completely able to take care of himself, but sometimes his actions were too risky. But what intrigued him the most about his pupil was that the riskier the task at hands, the more he seemed to enjoy it. And that moment was no exception.

Epona shook his head furiously as she neighed; the water of her horsehair splashed Fado on his face. He did not know Epona as much as her master, but that much he understood very well. She wanted to get to a safe place right away.

"I hope your master knows what he is doing," Fado said to Epona. He turned and headed to the village with Epona by his side.

* * *

Link was running fast, as fast as his legs allowed him. But he did not feel that he was advancing at the desired pace. He was running against the wind and the rain. The heavy drops splashed on his face and inside his eyes, mouth and ears. He felt like he was drowning. The sky was completely gray and there was no sign that the sudden storm was going to dissipate anytime soon. He had to hurry.

He stumbled inside the stable, and immediately spotted the rectangular hole in the ceiling. Water dripped inside the stable and was damping the soil and hay; the wind entered the place with a ghostly howl. The goats, clearly scared by the storm, were bleating loudly. Some of them looked agitated in their own pens.

He went directly to the tools table and searched for a hammer. Slightly shivering from the cold, he practically trashed the table when he couldn't find the steel nails. Once he found them, he picked up a handful of nails and put it in his pocket. Then, he grabbed a ladder that was placed in a corner, and headed back outside. The goats continued to bleat nervously, as if asking the human nearby to calm them down.

The weather outside the stable hit him again with great force; it threatened again to take his balance away. It took a lot of his strength to resist the wind's push. He felt like it would pull the skin off his bones. Against it all, he battled the wind and managed to nail the wooden ladder on the wet dirt. The climb to the roof was slow, and he prayed that the wind would not knock the ladder down.

Finally reaching the roof, Link clawed his way onto the wooden roof with his right hand and both knees. He was gripping the heavy hammer in his left hand. He barely advanced half a meter when he heard the ladder falling down. Its precarious anchorage was no match for the wind.

"Oh no," he muttered. Now he had no idea how he was going climb down the roof. "I'm in trouble…"

He shook his head; it was too soon to jump to conclusions. First he must fix the stable's roof; he would think about everything else later.

He began to crawl toward the half-flying panel. Both the storm and the roof's inclination were making the way to the damaged part difficult. Little by little, he reached the hole. With one hand, he grabbed the peeling panel side and tried pulled it back to its place. It did not yielded immediately; he used his entire body as leverage so the panel could finally give. Once lowered, he held the panel with one knee. He then took a nail from his pocket and began hammering. He could hear the anxious goats inside.

It took him five nails to fix the panel. The cold rain made the bones of his hand go somewhat numb, so the constant hammering was not provoking him any palpable pain. He just finished hammering down the panel, another wood panel in front of him started to peel off. He looked in dismay as the wind lifted the nailed spots on the wood. He crawled to the new damaged spot on the roof, held a nail with one hand and hammered it down into the wood. The storm raged on, but Link was not intimidated by it. He felt how the leaves and dirt were carried away by the strong wind, but as long they did not get into his eyes or the wind did not carried other bigger things (such as rocks or tree branches), he could manage. Link raised his head and took a second to watch the ranch from the roof. He could barely see the ranch through the rain; everything looked blurry and out of place no matter how hard he looked.

His eyes drifted unconsciously toward the ranch's only entrance and exit. He was about to resume his repairing work when his eyes caught on something there. Someone was standing under the ranch's entrance arch. It had a light green cloak over the body with its hood off the head. At first, Link could not recognize who the figure was. He quickly blinked once and watched again; maybe the weather was making him see things that were not there. But no, the figure remained there, apparently unaffected by the unforgiving storm.

Curious, Link tried to look further. The person did not appear to be very tall or very strong. Even cloaked almost from head to toe, it was a slender frame. He then realized that the person in the distance was a woman, and she was looking in his direction.

_Uli?_ It was the first name that came to his mind. Perhaps she saw Fado and Epona running back to the village and she was worried about him for not coming along with them. But what was she doing there? The wind almost made him to fall down a couple of times, but that woman's stance seemed unaltered by it. He forced his eyes again, and she looked like she was some meters away from her original spot; in fact, close enough to see her face. His jaw quivered when the woman that he thought was Uli was not her. The woman lacked all the facial features that distinguished her. She did not look like Pergie in any way or to any woman Link knew. He then realized that he did not know who that woman was.

_Then where did she come from? Is she stranded?_

Link saw movement from the unknown woman from afar. Leaning forward, he looked harder, and saw her only a little clearer. She was waving her hands furiously towards him in a motion he recognized, as if she was calling him, urging him to go to where she was. And her mouth seemed like it was moving. She was talking, but he could not make out what she was saying. He was not even sure if she was talking to him. He kept looking, completely ignoring the rain falling over him. Upon further observation he tried to read her lips through the long raindrops. It was not easy, but still he tried.

_Call… Ca-Col…_ No, that did not make sense. He kept trying. _Come… come bed-Come beck…_ No! It was frustrating, but at least he was able to put the bits together. She seemed to be saying the same phrase over and over again. She looked quite serious and worried.

_Come beck… Come be-Come back… hon… home… Come… back… home…_

"Come back home," he whispered, echoing the lady's words.

A woman that came out of nowhere was waving at him, mutely saying, screaming the phrase "come back home" as if there was no tomorrow.

There was something hypnotizing about her. He felt attracted to her. It was not a sexual attraction or anything related to it. He felt like he was in some sort of distant and blissful trance. The roaring wind turned into a mellow whistle deep inside his ears. The sound of the rain faded slowly until it was no more; the cold no longer made him shiver. His eyes saw nothing more than her. Everything was white around her; a mass of cotton balls covered the nature and seemed to envelope the delicate frame beyond. Her invisible aura radiated confidence and safety.

_Come back home… Come back home…_ _Come back home…_

The wind kept blowing over the ranch with fury, catching Link off balance. In the moment of mental emptiness, he put his hands on the wood roof to support himself from rolling over and falling from the roof. Once his anchorage to the roof was strong enough he looked at the woman once more. She was still there, waving her hands, calling him.

"Come back home. Come back home. Come back home." They were soundless words, but Link could listen to them; he could read them as they were said.

As much as he wanted to go back to his house, he could not do it. He had to fix the roof before anything else; the goats could not die. He was sure that both Fado and Mayor Bo were counting on him. Clenching his teeth, he repositioned himself near the damaged panel and hammered it down at a faster pace; he started to feel cold again.

He looked at the woman again. Her position did not change, and her pleadings continued.

"Come back home."

"I… I'm coming!" Link yelled at her, ignoring if the lady heard him or not through the storm.

With one more nail, the roof panel was fixed. He eyed the rest of the roof quickly; none of the panels seemed to be in immediate danger, and he finally knew that his task there was completed. He quickly crawled to the edge of the roof and looked down. He saw the fallen ladder in the ground, and the height between the roof edge and the ground looked pretty high. But a storm was practically squashing him, and his desire to come down for once was bigger than anything else.

He sat over the edge of the roof and looked down one more time. He breathed deeply; he had to do it, there was no other way. Without hesitation, he jumped down the edge, letting gravity to do its work. He landed on his feet and hands in a patch of mud, getting dirty instantly. He felt a small pressure in his ankles the moment he reached the floor, but nothing else in his body felt bruised or broken by the fall.

He stood up quickly, staggering a little. He entered the stable and looked around. He noted that the goats were less agitated and less scared than before, and no water was filtrating through the fixed wood panels. Despite the raging storm outside, he had not seen that the rest of the roof was going to fall apart. Reassured, he exited the stable and closed the door. Now he could go.

He ran to the exit, but halted immediately. He frowned; the figure, the woman that pleaded him to get down of the roof and go back to safety, was no longer there.

Fighting both the rain and the freezing wind, he ran to the center of the ranch. He stood there and looked around the place wildly. There was no sign of anybody in the ranch.

"Hey!" He called aloud. He looked around. The rain kept falling over him.

He frowned; not a minute passed since the last time he saw her, and now she was gone.

_Where did she go? Did she go to the village with the others?_

"How- But how did…?" He muttered. The mere effort of moving and maintaining balance was taking a lot of energy. How had that woman managed stay so calm and steady in the middle of such tempest? It was intriguing.

Concluding that standing under the rain looking for an apparent mirage was completely senseless, he ran out of the ranch. Upon reaching the arch, he stopped there and took a look to the ranch one more time. Link was not convinced yet that he was entirely alone in the ranch. He had to be sure.

_She was here, right here. And she was calling me. I could not have imagined it…_

He shook his head. He rubbed his eyes to wipe away the water excess and – hopefully – improve his sight. It was fruitless; the ranch was deserted and more water kept entering his eyes. Nobody was there. Defeated, he turned to leave Ordon Ranch, feeling like a fool.

He entered the familiar ground of Ordon Village. Although the mountains and nearby cliffs protected the village from most of the wind, the rain was still falling heavily over the wooden houses. The small river that ran across the village was already out of its bed. The rain that had not make it to the water body remained stagnant in small puddles everywhere.

"Link!"

The young man halted on his tracks. His gut jumped at the mention of his name. He looked around furiously when he could not identify the voice that called him. He quickly thought of the mysterious woman he saw back in the ranch. Her image was still etched in his mind. Was she really calling him now?

"Link, over here!"

Someone called him again. It sounded loud even under the falling rain. It was a man's voice this time, and the calling came from behind him.

He turned around, and saw Mayor Bo calling him from his house porch. He was waving at him. "Come inside Link!"

Link hesitated at first. He did not want to spend such bad weather in another person's house. He wanted to go home; he wanted to change into dry clothes and rest and, hopefully, clear his mind and convince himself that his mind was making him see things that did not exist at all. But Mayor Bo kept calling him to come inside his house and he could not endure another second under the storm. At that point, the rain felt like hammers pounding over his body.

Link could not decline Mayor Bo's offer. He ran to his house. Upon entering he almost fell on the floor, but he felt so relieved that the rain was finally behind him. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, forcing him to keep his balance and not to fall down. He was exhausted, his breathing was fast and somehow uneven. He was shivering from head to toe. He closed his eyes and winced when he began to feel pain on his extremities. His damp hair covered most of his face.

"Oh Link, look at you." Mayor Bo said as he approached the young man's bent form. His voice sounded full of concern. He put his hand on Link's back. "Why did you do such a thing, repairing the stable in the middle of a storm?" He said in a comforting way.

"Th-the woman…" Link managed to say between gasps of air. He felt like drowning with no water around him.

"What?"

"Th-the woman… in-in the ran-nch…" Link could not control his shivering as he tried to speak. "Out-t-side…"

"A woman?" Mayor Bo asked curiously.

Unable to articulate any word, he nodded.

The heavy man frowned. "Link, there was no one outside besides you." Mayor Bo said to him. "Everybody is safe. Nobody has come outside their houses since the storm struck the village. You do not need to worry about anyone."

_No, you do not understand._ That's what he wanted to say, but his body refused to obey his commands. The cold was engulfing him slowly. He opened his mouth to talk but instead a soft groan escaped his lips.

"Take it easy. It's going to be alright now. The storm will eventually go away. It will not last forever." Mayor Bo assured him.

Link did not hear that last statement. His legs could not hold his weight any longer. His knees buckled as they finally gave in. He fell in the puddle of water that formed from his own dripping hair and clothes.

The village's Mayor acted fast. He knelt beside Link and noted how paled he was. He was trembling and he unconsciously began to curl on the floor. His eyes were closed.

"Link?" Mayor Bo called while shaking his shoulder softly. He refused to open his eyes. It seemed like he was in pain. "Ilia!"

Ilia came out of the basement when her father called her. "Father, what is it?"

She gasped at the scene in front of her. Link laid crumbled on the flood, dripping wet and his feet dirty with mud. Her father was kneeled by his side, inspecting him.

"Father, what happened?" He was ready to run towards them when his father stopped her.

"Ilia, go find some blankets, now!" Mayor Bo ordered his daughter. If he did not warm Link soon, it was sure that he was going to catch a cold. Or perhaps something worst.

Ilia turned and left to search for the blankets.

Mayor Bo then turned to Link once more, who was still shivering but remained unmoving.

"Come on, boy, hang in there." He encouraged him. "Can you hear me Link? If you do, open your eyes."

_Wake up Link._

_Huh?_ He heard her again. It was barely a whisper, but he was able to hear it. The woman was there, and he wanted to see her.

It took him some seconds to do so, but he fought against the weariness and was able to open his eyes. He found the concerned and mustached face of Mayor Bo staring at him. Again, no woman beside him; his mind was playing with him again. He clenched his fist against his confusion. He blinked twice to focus on his surroundings, on the real voices around him.

"Can you move?" Mayor Bo asked.

"Ye-ye-yes." He muttered. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "I-I can move."

Mayor Bo helped him to sit on his knees first while he recovered from the storm. His movements were slow and lethargic, but at least he was responding and moving. He was sure there would not be major consequences from his exposure to the rain.

By that time, Ilia returned with a couple of blankets which he handed to his father immediately. He quickly placed the blankets over Link's shoulders. He saw how the intensity of his shivering lowered substantially. Link sighed in relief as the warm blankets hugged him like tender arms around him.

_He was enveloped by a warm, soft blanket that covered almost all his small frame…_

…_The movements which surrounded him and made him feel calmer…_

Link brought a hand to his forehead in an attempt to lessen the mounting headache he was feeling and with that, to sweep away any memory of his weird dreams that kept invading his head. He could hear the storm raging outside the Mayor's house.

"Don't worry, you will be alright. You are just a little shaken up, but everything would fall into place in no time, I promise." Mayor Bo said as he rubbed Link's back in a comforting way.

"Yeah," Link muttered absently. He wanted to believe him; if it was so easy, he would not be feeling so confused at that time. Then he remembered something. "Oh no."

"What's wrong?"

"Fado… Where is Fado?" He began to panic and looked around wildly. "And Epona…?

"They are safe." Ilia said to him

Link lifted his head and looked at his friend's face.

"On his way back to the village, he managed to tell me that you were going to repair the stable's roof." Mayor Bo explained. "Epona was with him, I am sure she is fine with him."

A big weight was lifted from Link's shoulders; that much he believed. Besides Ilia, if somebody could take care of his beloved horse was him. He knew his job depended in part on Epona, so he must take care of her too. At least Fado and Epona were alright.

"Sorry about…" Link said after a moment of silence, looking at the growing puddle of water under his knees.

"Oh, forget about it. There is nothing to be sorry about." The older man said modestly. "Now, let me help you up."

Mayor Bo wrapped an arm around Link's shoulders and helped him to stand up from the floor. His legs were a little weak and the cold in his bones was not helping him. But he used all his available strength to keep his legs from crumbling. Some steps later, he was next to the living room's couch. As soon as he sat there, he felt extremely sleepy. His eyelids felt heavy and his head weighted even more over his shoulders. He never imagined that spending half and hour under a storm could drain so much energy off his body.

He let his head to fall back in the couch and closed his eyes. What he did was rather rash. Sacrificing himself to save the goats from a possible stable collapse; he could have ended hurt if he fell down into the room. He should have listened to Fado when he ordered him to come back to the village. But as stubborn as he was, he did not listen. If the stable collapsed, it would have killed the goats inside. And if they escaped, there was no way they were going to survive under the violent storm. For him, all the risks he took were worth it. He did not regret doing what he did.

_And yet, that person… _

"That was crazy."

Link lifted his head to see Ilia coming with a cup in her hand. He sat beside him in the couch. He felt so disoriented that it was evident that he had passed out on the couch for a minute without noticing. "Huh?"

"What you did in the ranch. Repairing the stable all by yourself; it was very courageous of you, but you could have ended hurt." Ilia said as she offered the cup of steaming tea to Link.

"Someone had to do it." Link said softly. He looked at the cup's greenish concoction before sipping. The tea acted immediately. It tasted sweet and it brought some warmth to his inner organs like magic. Even his shivering diminished considerably. "You did this?"

Ilia nodded, smiling shyly.

"It tastes good," Link said as he sipped his tea.

"That's good to know. Being as bad a cook as I am, that is definitely a step forward." She said.

"Your cooking is not bad," Link offered. "Well, at least not the ones that I've eaten."

"Oh Link you don't have to lie," She chuckled. He could have sworn she was starting to blush. She looked comical.

"I'm not lying," he replied. "I would never lie to you."

They laughed together as the good friends they had been since the very beginning or their lives. A thunder struck outside the house, reminder that the storm was still raging outside. Ilia almost jumped out of her sit, startled.

"Gods, it's still raining hard outside." Ilia said.

"It surely is. Just look at me." Link grinned. She eyed him from head to toe and noted hat he was still dripping wet from his "shower" outside.

"Yes, I can see." She pointed. "And I also see that you need some dry clothes or you will catch a cold by tomorrow." Ilia proceeded to get off the couch. "I'll see if Father has some old-"

"I am sorry," the young man said suddenly and out of the blue, cutting her off mid-sentence. He was still hugging the blanket around him. His eyes were fixed on the floor.

"What?"

"I am sorry…" His voice threatened to trail off. "…for what I said to you yesterday."

Ilia looked at him sympathetically. It was funny that he brought the topic at that moment, a whole day after their argument… when she had almost forgotten about that.

"I really want to apologize for what I said to you. I did not mean it."

Ilia sat back by his side. She could see some kind of sorrow in his eyes. "Oh Link, I understand you were not in a very good mood, but believe me, it was not your fault."

"Well, it was not your fault either." Link said. He looked at her straight into her eyes. "And I don't want you to blame yourself either." At that point he sounded very apologetic toward her. "No matter what we were arguing about, I treated you disrespectfully. And I want you to know that I am very sorry about that."

Ilia was shaken by his friend's confession.

She chuckled nervously. "Um, you are forgiven. In fact, you were forgiven long before that."

"Really?" Link's face shined.

"Of course, don't worry about it." She smiled at him, and it brought the warmth his body thrived for at the moment "And I promise," she added. "I won't talk about _that_ again. If talking about _that_ tears your happiness away, I won't bring it back into our conversations again." She said with a stern face.

_That._ It was certainly the detonator of their rant. What she stated was double-edged blade. On the good side, she seemed to finally understand what he thought about his past and everything around it, unknown people included. But on the bad side, that would compromise the trust they both had for each other. Ilia was his best friend, and best friends should be free to talk about everything without any bonds. Even secrets were allowed to be shared between friends. He didn't want to compromise the freedom of speech of anyone. But he also thought that the less the topic about his past was mentioned, the better.

"Um…" He did not know what to say. She wanted him to be happy, and he could not deny her that. "That's… fair enough." He said shyly.

Ilia threw herself toward Link and embraced him in a hug. That did not need an explanation. For him, it was the proof that he was officially forgiven.

"Um, Ilia. I'm wet…"

The young girl broke the embrace immediately. She forgot that he was still wet from the storm outside. "Oh yes, I forgot."

She stood off from the couch.

"Now like I said before, let's find some dry clothes for you." Ilia said. "There must be some that Father doesn't use any more."

"Okay," he leaned his head back again, more relaxed than before. Even the hypnotizing sound of the rain outside could not wash Link's thoughts away. There were so many things in his mind, yet he didn't have the required energy to organize them. He was very exhausted. He wanted to explain to someone what he'd been through in the past days; what he'd been hearing, what he'd been seeing. Maybe if he spoke about what was stressing him so much even in his privacy, he would feel better.

"Ilia?" Link called.

"Yes, Link?" She turned to look at him from the stairs to the second story.

He was going to speak, but changed his mind immediately. Something made him stop.

_Whispering voices in my ears… Weird experiences in my house's cellar… A woman waving at me… How juvenile and unreal would that sound?_

"Link, do you want to tell me something?" Ilia asked.

He sighed. "Nothing. It is nothing." He offered a smile to assure her that everything was okay, although he knew very well that was not entirely true.

Ilia looked at him somewhat confused, but did not press him again. She turned again to search for dry clothes.

Secrets can be shared among friends, but Link thought he could make an exception this time, no matter how bad that sounded. It was his problem and his visions and before he could talk about them, first he must deal with them, alone.

_TBC..._

* * *

_A/N: For those who are following the story: I don't intend to make a pairing out of the Link and Ilia interaction here or in future chapters. It's just intended to be a LinkxIlia friendship bond. I'm not a 'shipper of any kind in any fandom and I can't stand romantic fics. But if you want to imagine some sugary fluffiness between them as you read, I'm not going to stop you._

_As usual, be kind and review. Let me know what you think. Thank you :)_


	6. White Signs

_A/N: Previous disclaimers apply._

_Again, many thanks to **gamegirl07** for beta-reading this chapter._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

_**The Ghost Beside Me**_

_**Chapter 6: **__**White Signs**_

"Well, judging by the looks of it, the stable is very much intact on the inside." Mayor Bo observed.

"You're right, but outside the place… that is another story." Fado said with a hint of despondency in his voice, "I should have known better; I would have repaired the roof long ago before this kind of thing happened in the first place."

"_Achoo!"_

"Worry not Fado, I will buy some good-quality panels from Hyrule's traders by the end of the week. I am sure that the others in the village will help you out with the task."

"Thank you, Mayor Bo. I appreciate it."

_-Cough cough-_

"What about the goats?" The Mayor pointed at the animals.

"They're still a little shocked, and I can understand them." Fado said as he softly patted one of the goats on the head.

_-Sniff sniff-_

"No one got injured?" Mayor Bo asked.

_-Cough cough cough-_

"Not a single one. They're good and healthy. Only one is showing signs of illness, but nothing that a good elixir cannot cure," Fado answered.

"Aah-ah… aaa-chooo!"

Fado and Mayor Bo turned their heads at the same time when the loud and insisting background sounds startled them and could not be ignored any longer. They looked at Link in the far wall of the stable, who was supposed to be feeding one of the ranch's many goats. The older men watched as Link cupped his hands over his mouth and nose in an attempt to muffle another sneeze. They pretended to ignored it, but his sneezing fits were more constant with each passing minutes.

Link looked at the two men with the corner of an eye; his hands were still cupped over his mouth as another sneeze came out of his system. After a quick look, he wiped out his hands against his shirt fabric and continued to feed the goat as if nothing had ever happen.

As much as he tried not to sneeze or cough in front of his superiors, he found himself doing either one of them. They always came without warning and gave him no time to stifle them inside his system. If it wasn't the sneezing, it was the coughing. And when it wasn't any of the previous things, he would pass the day sniffing any watery secretions that threatened to run down his nose. The worst part of it was that with each sneeze and cough, his head throbbed painfully. The throbbing lasted a second or two after the sneeze, but it was enough to steal away his concentration from any task in front of him.

Link tried very hard to conceal his discomfort from others, but this time it was too evident what was happening to him.

"Speaking of illnesses…" Mayor Bo muttered.

"Yea, he is as stubborn as he can be." Fado added. "I'll talk to him to take the day off."

"Don't worry, I'll do it." The Mayor offered. "Meanwhile, go outside and see if the backside has any damaged."

"Yes sir," Fado obeyed him and immediately went outside.

Mayor Bo approached Link, which was now scratching his nose with the back of his hand.

"Hey son," Bo greeted.

"Yes Mayor?" Link said hoarsely, looking up at the Mayor Bo frowned at Link's appearance. His eyes were a little puffy, red and watery. The tip of his nose was red and raw because of the excessive scratching.

"Are you okay." Mayor Bo observed.

"Yes, I'm alright." Link answered but it did not sound very convincing.

"Kid, you don't look so good today."

Link sniffed scratched his nose again.

"And certainly you don't sound any good either."

Link thought of an excuse before replying. "Eh, perhaps it's the hay around here. It got into me today. But seriously, I feel fine."

Mayor Bo raised an eyebrow. "In all the years you've been working in the ranch, it was today that you noticed you have allergies?"

"It must be," Link nodded.

"And especially today, the day after you spent half of the storm outdoors and soaking yourself entirely?"

Link did not reply that time.

"Link, I don't need to ask you to know that you are not feeling well." The Mayor said. "You cannot hide your sickness to everybody."

"I needed to be here, I had to make sure that the fix held up the entire storm." The younger man said. He sniffed. "Besides, Fado may need some help with the goats."

"The goats will be tended and the stable will be repaired, but you don't need to stress yourself to the limit in that condition."

"I can manage… Ah-achoo!!" Link could not finish his sentence. He closed his eyes shut until the head throb ceased. He groaned at the pain and discomfort it caused.

"Link, you are not supposed be working while you are sick. If fact, you are not supposed to be out of your bed in the first place." Mayor Bo said. "Now go back to your house, take your medicinal herbs and have some rest. You need it."

Link sighed. "Okay."

Defeated, Link dropped the hay he had in his hand and exited the stable.

Who was he kidding? He looked and felt beat up. He knew it since the moment he woke up that morning. He spent too much time under the rain and another amount of time with wet clothes on. It should not surprise him that the exposure to the bad weather ended in him being sick with a cold.

He expected the day after the storm to be gray and damp. But it was not that way. The day was sunny and warm. The sun was brilliant and hung over the blue sky and not a single cloud was on the sun's way. It completely contrasted the weather from the day before.

The storm lasted until late at night. He spent all that time in Bo and Ilia's house. He changed his wet clothes for the change of clothes that Ilia offered. Knowing that it belonged to a younger Bo in the past, he expected them to be extremely loose over his frame. But to his surprise, the clothes fit him fine; barely one size bigger to him. The thought that the chubby Mayor Bo he knew was as slim as he was at a time made him want to laugh his guts out.

Not having much to do in a rainy night, Link, Ilia and Bo spent the night talking and telling jokes to each other. Both Ilia and Link listened to the Mayor's stories about his childhood and some of the misadventure he endured before becoming Ordon Village's head chief. Link enjoyed his storytelling; they kept his mind imagining how the village looked years ago.

Some hours later, the rain decreased its intensity little by little until it stopped completely. Although the storm was over, Link had to wait until the river's level and velocity reached a safe level so he could be able to pass through with no problem. He assumed that once he reached his home and warmed himself up good enough, there would be no major problems the next day.

It had not been enough.

Now he was on his way home again. He spotted no people outside their houses. Without the village's children playing and cheering throughout the village, the way home was rather silent; only the occasional chirping of birds added some sound to the ghastly environment. Since the earth and ground was made a big puddle of mud and dirt, there was no point in roaming around; they would end up with their feet dirty and catching a cold. Just like him. There was a point when he lost count of how many times he succumbed to sneezing. Not only his head hurt when he did it, now his entire face was achy; his mouth, his cheekbones, even his teeth began to resent. In one occasion, he sneezed with so much force that it was a miracle that his nose hadn't fell off his face yet.

He reached his house when he felt his throat was beginning to bother him. His nose already itched, so why did his throat have to itch as well? He hurriedly climbed the ladder and entered his house. Once inside, the first thing he thought about was his bed. It looked so inviting and his head pleaded to be laid down in some comfy pillows. He almost succumbed to the temptation, but before that, he needed to treat himself.

He searched for a potion or any medicinal herbs he may have stored somewhere in his house. After searching in the shelves, he found a bottle of some red concoction and some herbs that were rolled up in a small towel. More than half of the red potion was gone and he was sure it was as old as time, but he had nothing else at hand so he would need to improvise. He knew that it would not be as effective as in the previous times he used it (if he actually used it; he did not remembered when was the last time he got sick), but if it could only help him sleep though the night then it was enough for him. He boiled the brown herbs with water and poured a little in a cup. Then he added a little of the red potion in the herb tea.

He winced when he tasted it. It did not smell bad, but tasted awfully bitter. He longed for the sweet tea that Ilia served him the night before. With another sip of the tea, the itching in his nose and throat were controlled, and his congestion was almost gone; he could even breathe better than a minute ago. He sighed in relief. His little experiment paid off and he was satisfied with the results, but not with the taste.

After forcing down the last drop of the bitter tea, he went to his bed. He threw the blanket over his body, closed his eyes and concentrated on getting better rather than in any nightmare he might have.

_Soft white light was filtering through his window when he woke up. It was not the kind of light that blinded the eyes or burned the tree leaves. Instead it was relaxing and somehow beautiful. He got out of bed fully awaken; there was no need to stretch or to rub his eyes. He felt good. In fact, he had never felt so good in quite a long time._

_He walked away from the bed. He made the steps automatically and in perfect tempo, allowing his feet to guide the rest of his body to any place they may find in the way. He did not care where he was going. Something in his guts were telling him not to worry about anything; his feet would find the way. So he did. He ignored everything around that could catch his attention and followed the invisible path his feet and mind were following._

_He was not thinking about anything. He kept his eyes fixed to the front, hypnotized by the unseen rope that kept pulling him towards no place new._

_He reached his house's small foyer when he stopped. As soon as his bare feet stopped walking, so did his blank thoughts. His world seemed to stop as he looked at the figure in front of him. The figure was slightly taller than him and was as still as a stone statue. Perhaps it was a stranger in his house, but not to him. The light green cloak that covered the body entirely, the hood over her eyes, her hands showing through the cloak's long sleeves… Her hands…_

_He did not know her. Yet, he'd seen her before._

"_It's you," Link said to the woman in front of him. It had to be her she had to be the lady from the ranch, safe and sound after the grueling storm that fell over her. The mysterious woman that appeared and disappeared from his eyes in a short amount of time was there, as close to him as his emotions allowed him. Immediately, he wanted to know more about her. He wanted to see her face, her ever elusive face, the place she came from, her family. Did she have a family? He wanted to know. He wanted to know everything. "It's really you." He echoed with some excitement._

_The lady gave him a faint smile; her thin lips were the only thing visible because the hood covered most of her face. She did not say anything to confirm the young man's suspicions. Instead, she turned around and headed to the door._

_Link's expression faded. She was going away without articulating a single word, without letting him know who she really was. He was afraid that he would not have another encounter with her. He could not allow her to leave. Not yet. He wanted to stop her, but he was unable to move. His body moved unconsciously mere seconds before, and now it would not follow his command. It was like being nailed to the floor. He felt desperate, he wanted to scream. Maybe he was losing his mind._

"_Don't go," Link pleaded not moving from his spot._

_The cloaked woman opened the door and took a step outside. The door remained opened._

"_Where are you going?" He asked to her in a low voice._

_Slowly, she turned her head so she could see him over her shoulder. Her faint smile never left her lips even after she turned around. Although he could see most of the side of her face, the shadow formed by the hood over her head made it hard to focus on details. Her eyes were hidden from viewing properly._

"_Who are you?" Link whispered._

"_It is beautiful outside," The lady said in a tone and manner that Link knew he heard before, but did not remember when or where._

_She turned her head and broke any eye contact he had on her face. In that moment, an invisible wind closed the door with extreme force. It thundered against the door frame and made the whole house to tremble over its foundation. The sound the door made was loud, too loud for Link's ears to endure. The deafening sound made him cry out in sudden terror, and his gut reacted painfully inside him._

_It did not give him time to cover his ears and it was more than enough to wake him up again…_

Link gasped when he felt an uncomfortable spasm hit his belly. It woke him up instantly. There was some ringing in his ears that was gone as soon as he heard it. He grabbed his belly hoping that the spasm would cease quickly, but he had no time for that. A coughing fit hit his throat and lungs again and with that, the headache he had before dozing off came back. He regained control of his breathing half a minute later. He felt dizzy, his nose was clogged and his throat was sore. Even the air that he breathed in was a source of great discomfort in his throat. He felt unusually cold, what made him think that some mild fever had set in his system.

_Just what I needed…_

Although he felt lightheaded, he was sure his head would not fall off his shoulders. He got up from bed groggily, a little surprised at how bad he felt. He knew it was the consequences of his overexposure to the weather, but as well as with the weather, too little time passed between the exposure and his illness.

Once he got up, he spotted something on the floor. Droplets of water were scattered all over the floor. He scratched his head; his feet felt cold but were dry, and he didn't remember having his feet wet the last time he got home. Even if they were, he would have cleaned it up right away.

He kneeled down to inspect the water on the floor after rubbing his runny nose. He wiggled an index finger playfully on one of the biggest droplet without disturbing the border. He thought that he must have been bored or had his mind been too cloudy at the moment because he began to search for a suitable shape to match the group of droplets that covered a great part of his house wooden floor.

Link smiled to himself when he decided that the first group resembled a bare footprint, a left one. Then he eyed the next group about a foot away from the first and, coincidentally, it also resembled a footprint. A right one.

_Too much coincidence_, he thought. Frowning, he stood up slowly and eyes all the groups of puddles at once. He felt some kind of chill inside his stomach when he realized that the rest of the puddles also resembled footprints. It was like the images formed in his mind and then transfigured outside in the real world. The trail started near his bed and led up to the front door. They were not close to each other; they were apart by some inches, as if walking away from the bed and heading for the door. He was sure that his imagination had been running wild for the last few days, but that time was different. Somebody had been in his house while he slept. Or perhaps it was something worst.

Someone was following him.

Hesitantly, he lifted a foot and put it over the footprint. The droplets were cold and sent some chills through his nerves. When he pressed his foot under it, he almost gasped. It was a perfect match to his own foot, all the water remained under his heel and none splat away. Two's a coincidence, but three was something else. He stepped over the next footprint making a step forward. Again it was a perfect match. It did not make sense. It was highly improbable, but it could have been some moment that, in his troubled sleep, he would have woke up and walked around the place aimlessly. But even if he did, it did not explain the water all over the place. It was disturbing.

Link followed the footprints with cautious steps; one foot over a print and so on, each print identical to the young man's heels. He felt entranced by them, and he knew that it had to lead him somewhere, so he did not hesitate in following them. He did not recall walking in that direction, but strangely enough, he had made those steps some time ago. Or someplace else.

_He made the steps automatically and in perfect tempo, letting his feet to guide the rest of his body to anyplace they may find in the way…_

As he walked, his dream tried to make a full blast return to his head. He dismissed the memory, for his mind was racing and his heart was pounding rapidly. He came to a stop when the footprint trail stopped. He was face by his house door. He was not sure if opening it was a good idea, but he had to. Maybe at the other side of the door lied his answers; the answers to questions that were either irrational or did not existed yet. Slowly, he put a hand on the door handle. He remembered his little scene in the cellar when he had some visions when he tried to open the old armoire doors. But that did not happen this time. Embracing himself to whoever he may find outside, he breathed deeply and closed his eyes. He opened the door in one quick motion.

A blast of cold air hit him right in his face, making goosebumps run through Link's skin. The cold breeze nourished his headache and made his feet to crumble. He straightened up, rubbing his shoulders with his hands to warm them up a little. He kept his eyes closed; he was afraid that if he opened them too soon they would freeze like ice blocks.

There was a presence roaming around the air. It moved softly and was strong in the air. Link could almost smell it. Suddenly he had the urge to extend his hands and try to touch it, but he held his hands in place and desisted to do such a thing. He breathed in courage and determination before opening his eyes. Whoever was there – whether it was the lady from his visions or the phantom of his nightmares – he was going to face it.

A second later, he opened his eyes. He blinked twice to assure himself that his mind was not playing any kind of mystical tricks. Nobody was with him or close to him. In fact, he was alone on his house porch. Nevertheless, the scenery in front of him was enough to cause his jaw to draw open and to forget his congested lungs.

Snow - seas of white snow covered the ground to the point that not a single mount of dirt or rock was visible. The snowflakes cumulated on the trees leaves and fell off gently over more snow at the trees' feet. The sky was white with clouds, but enough sun rays filtered through them to announce that daylight was on. He looked down and noticed that his feet unconsciously swept away some cumulated snow from the porch.

Link felt completely lost in time and space. Such a heavy snow fell over the place and he had not even notice it? How long does it take to fill a field with snow? It reminded him of the storm last night; it came swift and without any warning. Perhaps it was the same with the snow. It was strange that the weather kept changing so fast. It almost scared him.

But amidst the erratic weather, Link was amazed by what he was seeing. To see tons of snow piled up all around his place was something he did not see every day. In fact, he'd never seen Ordon Village covered in snow. It was the first time. He looked around the place petrified in place. His feelings were mixing again. The nightmares, the visions, and the weather scared him to a point. But when he looked at the white horizon in front of him, he could not help but to admire everything around him. It was… beautiful.

"_It is beautiful outside…"_

He recalled the lady's words in his dreams. She said that while looking outside. But it was a dream. Did he really meet that woman last night? The thought that he could no longer separate his dream from reality was enough to make him worry. He was afraid he was starting to lose his mind.

"Aa-choo!" The sneezing and the pain that thundered once more inside his skull was enough to convince him that he was living a real life. He entered his house, searching for a winter coat and headed to the village. His next dose of medicine would have to wait until later that day.

Walking through snow was a little difficult. The snow depth reached past his ankles, and if the heavy feeling in his body was bothersome, making the steps was taking the energy he needed to keep on his feet. It was quite cold. He put his coat's hood over his head to protect his head and ears from freezing and hugged the coat as close to his skin as possible to keep it warm.

But his surroundings did not fail to impress him ever more. Everything was covered in snow: the grass, the crops, the trees, even the roofs of every house in sight were covered in snow; it looked like they had been painted that color. Even the small river that passed through the village was frozen. Some men were paddling snow off their houses entrances. In the distance, he could see the children playing in the snow. Link watched as small Talo and Colin – heavily clothed against the cold – were throwing snowball to each other. The little girl Beth was lying on her back over the cold snow, waving her arms and legs and disturbing the perfect layered snow. Hard working men on one side, and little children playing not too far from them. Link smiled.

Eventually he reached Uli and Rusl's house. He saw Rusl paddling the excess snow that fell around the porch with a shovel. He was so entranced in his task that he didn't notice the young man's arrival.

"Hey Rusl," Link said.

"Good morning Link." Rusl greeted and smiled as he looked up. "I didn't notice you were here."

"I have quiet shoes." Link joked.

They both laughed.

"Can I help you with that?" The younger man pointed to the shovel in the older man's hand. "You look tired and I can help you finish removing the snow."

"Don't worry about it. I'm almost over here. But thanks for your offer, son."

"It's okay."

Rusl resumed his task of paddling some snow, but a second later he stopped and looked at Link quizzically. "Besides, young man…" Rusl started.

Link looked at him.

"I have the understanding that you should not be out of bed in the first place." Rusl's cheery façade grew a little serious.

Link was caught off guard. He thought he could dissimulate his illness from the others, but it was useless if everybody already knew about it. Gods, words ran fast in the small village. "Um – well that was yesterday. But I woke up fine today, really. The cold is not even affecting me a bit." He lied to him, but his words sounded quite natural despite the obvious soreness in his throat and the uncomfortable itch in his nose.

Not resisting another second, he scratched his nose and managed to suppress a cough. Either way, Rusl noticed.

"Link, you cannot lie to me. You look bit up"

To that last line, he did not answer. He was right, he knew him too much.

"Come on Link, sit down."

Both men sat down tiredly in the porch, Rusl for weariness, Link for sickness. They sighed in relief as they found some support for their bodies. Rusl shared some pleasantries with his young pupil as the watched the half iced-over place.

"Whew, heavy rain and heavy snow in less than three days… that is quite a record. It seems that the nature spirits are running wild around the province." Rusl commented while looking at the scene in front of him. "I haven't seen snow in quite a time, and in such quantity."

"You have seen snow before?" Link asked full of curiosity.

"It snowed sometimes while I lived back in Hyrule Castle Town. But it is not the first time it snow in Ordon Village."

"Really? When was the first time it snow in Ordon?"

"It was many years ago. I remembered it as if it was yesterday."

"And how was it?"

"Not much different from today, I can say." He paused. He looked like he was trying to remember something specific. "It snowed after the passing of a good friend of mine."

"Surely it was the spirits' way to mourn over your friend." Link added after a moment.

"Perhaps it was. I never thought of it that way." Rusl said.

"It is just a thought." Link shrugged.

There was a small pause.

"It was exactly three days after her passing."

_Her passing?_ Link thought. He surely was not talking about Uli. But still, he said _"her"_.

"Oh," the young man said. "And who was her?" That question surprised him completely. What did he just ask that? Why would he want to know about that person?

"She was a good friend of mine," Rusl said. "But she was Uli's best friend. The best she'd ever had."

"_Adryll was my best friend…"_ Uli's words echoed painfully in his ears.

Despite the cold weather, his blood ran colder through his veins. He felt his hands were starting to sweat. He made a superhuman effort not to show his growing stress to his mentor.

"And… what was her name?" Link pressed, wanting and not wanting to know at the same time.

_Please, don't mention her_. He pleaded silently. He repeated it over and over again like a litany to the gods.

_Please, don't mention her_.

_Please, don't mention her_.

_Please, don't mention her_.

"Her name was Adryll." Rusl said blankly.

_No…_

"That good friend was your mother."

_TBC..._

_

* * *

A/N: What, are you lost or something in this story? I can help you out and start tying up some loose ends in the next chapter. But it's all up to you. You know the drill...  
_


	7. Haunted

_Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Surprised?_

_A/N: Well, time to speed up some things here. Don't you agree?_

_My thanks and many sugar cookies to **gamegirl07** for beta-reading this chapter._

* * *

_**The Ghost Beside Me**_

**Chapter 7: Haunted**

It could not be; he promised to himself not to talk about it again, yet he found himself talking about it. And at his own request. His curiosity had gotten the best of him once more.

It was the first time that Rusl mentioned anything about his past in front of him. The mention of his mother's name by the mustached man sounded weird; but at the same time it sounded natural, as if he was used to say that name.

Link stared blankly at his feet trying to conceal his thoughts from the man by his side. He caught Rusl looking at him with the corner of his eye. When he noticed he was staring at him, he broke eye contact immediately.

"Uli told you," Link stated.

"Yes."

Of course she told him. They were spouses after all; they can talk about anything.

"Link, sooner or later I was going to know about your visit to Uli some days ago." Rusl said after a moment of silence. "Please don't blame her."

"Wha-what? Blame her? No! But why? She did nothing to me." Link gasped. As much as he wanted to blame somebody for the bad mood he had endured for some days now, Rusl's wife was not to blame for anything in any way.

"She told me the news made you a little distracted. Now I mention it and I have to say that she was right. Your reaction now is no different." Rusl said.

Link closed his eyes. He inhaled as much air as he could through his runny nose. Now every one had noticed he was acting out of character. He needed to calm down before saying anything else.

"It's-" He sniffed and scratched his nose. "It's… Aw, I don't know what to say."

Rusl moved closer to him. He offered him a warm smile. "Look son, I know that this was not the best way to learn about your past, and I understand that you may feel confused about it. That is why I won't force you to talk about something that makes you feel so uncomfortable right now."

Link looked at him and listened.

"All she told you is the truth and it's real, but I am not telling you that you must believe it, Link. But, I must tell you only one thing: it is what you want it to be. We can tell you what we saw, but we cannot force you to accept it, since it is so attached to you in so many ways."

Rusl paused to see if any expression was shown on the young man's face. But he knew that Link - being Link – would not let his feelings be reflected on his face so easily.

"You just have to look deep inside your mind, Link. Only then, after all your doubts are gone and nothing else clouds your understanding, you will feel better."

Link was taken aback by his words. In all the years that Rusl had mentored him in language, battle and philosophy, nothing had struck him so hard than what he just said.

"I will pray for it to happen soon," Link said, and smiled a little.

Rusl smiled back and patted his shoulder slightly. By that time, his eyes itched and felt like they were burning. He rubbed them with both his hands.

Rusl sighed. "Now do me a favor, go to your house, drink your potions, and lay your head to rest would you?"

Link smiled a little. "I hate to admit it, but it's starting to sound like a good idea."

Link got up from his spot on the porch and said his good bye to Rusl.

"Do you need some company on your way home?" Rusl offered.

"Don't worry, I'm heading straight to my bed form here. I'm going nowhere else." Link assured him.

"I will be here if you need to talk, or anything for that matter. Uli is willing to help you too. You can always count on us."

"I know."

* * *

Link splashed some water over his face from a clay basin. It felt refreshing and brought some relief to his now firing eyes and cheeks. He watched his reflection in the mirror in front of him. He had to admit that he looked pale and sick. He just drank another sip from the bitter red potion, but this time it did little to his worsening condition. It made his throat feel better, but his headache continued to mount with each passing minute. He resolved that if he didn't feel better by the next morning, he would set his pride aside and ask Uli for some remedy, or Ilia for some more sweet tea.

His headache and weariness made his head heavy and too tired to think clearly, and for that he owed his cold. Once again his mood was dampened for the rest of the day by the mention of his mother and his past. It was too much for him. He felt so uncomfortable around that topic to the point that any conversations with him was destined to end up unpleasantly for everyone, and he couldn't let that happened. It wasn't his way to act with the world.

He knew that he needed to overcome those things because he couldn't let himself go ballistics to everyone that mention the word _"mother"_ to him. But he didn't know how. Someone says that and his mind and understanding somehow closed shut to anyone around him. At least there were people who understood him, and those people would never turn their backs to him. But in his mind he knew that he was the one creating that wall of isolation and not anyone else. And so the task of bringing that wall down was his and his alone.

He grabbed a towel nearby and dried his face of the excess water. He took one more look in the mirror, and he saw that he was not alone.

He gasped when he saw a creature behind his mirror's reflection. The creature seemed to be a lot taller than him. An old and ratty cloak covered it from head to toe. There was no face inside his hood; it was black, hollow, and the only thing that protruded from it was two disgusting yellow orbs that resembled two eyes.

Link's heart pounded painfully in his chest, and the sudden burst of fear in his belly made it hard to breathe. The creature seemed to be staring at him intently in complete silence, and he felt like its eyes-orbs were burning his soul bit by bit.

He turned immediately to face the monster behind him, but no one was there. There was no trace of anyone being at his house and he felt no presence of anyone whatsoever. He was alone.

He turned again to the water basin and the mirror, panting. But there it was again, the same thing was still reflected in the mirror; its orbs never leaving Link's image. He looked again behind him, but nobody was with him. Nothing and no one was behind him. He stumbled back in a coughing fit hit him; if it wasn't for the night table behind him, he would have fallen down on his behind. But the fact that he stumbled into nobody behind him was scaring him even more.

The creature was still there, watching him from the mirror, unmoving. It was the scariest thing he'd ever saw. After he regained control of his breathing and his coughing stopped, he watched its appearance for some seconds until it was too much for his eyes and mind to endure. But then, he recognized the monster in front of him. He'd seen it before.

_Two brilliant orbs floated where the eyes should be…_

_It had no face; it was a hollow, endless void beyond the hood…_

_They were frighteningly hypnotizing, and the boy wanted to look away, but he couldn't…_

"No…" He muttered. He rubbed his eyes furiously; it was – it had to be – his imagination. He could not accept that, after pulling through so many difficult days, he was finally losing his mind.

It was the ghost from his nightmares.

Breathing heavily and head pounding, he stumbled forward until he was facing the mirror again. He paid no attention to his image, but to the monster there. The monster moved his head slightly but its gaze never left Link's direction, making another pang of fear to jump inside his chest. Link touched the mirror with a hand where the monster was. His hand only touched a hard, smooth surface. He then rubbed his hand across the surface, trying to erase the foul image.

But the ghost was there, out of his dreams and inside his mirror, inside his house. His sacred place.

"Who are you?" Link asked out of breath. He didn't mind if he sounded like a crazy boy because he wasn't. That thing was right in front of him and there was no one that could convince him otherwise. "Answer me!" He raised his voice as loud as his sore throat allowed him.

He heard nothing. His question was rewarded with silence.

The fear inside him was morphing slowly into frustration. This ghost, wherever it came from, was not showing any signs of menace to him. It looked like he was there to scare him, or to say something it had not said yet. Whatever the reason, Link did not welcome it, not in his nightmare and certainly not in the real world.

"What do you want from me?" Link asked the creature in the mirror. The ghost straightened up in its spot, but didn't say anything; not that it had a mouth to talk, but the silence reigning there was enough.

"You are not answering me," he whispered. "You are not answering me? Okay then."

He turned to the night table and grabbed and empty flower vase that stood there. He gripped it firmly and aimed to the mirror in the distance while muttering the same words over and over again. His sight was becoming blurry by moments and came back relatively clear. The mirror and the ghost inside seemed to move farther away from him by the second.

"Get out of my house." Link gave the ghost an ultimatum. The ghost remained unmoved by his threat. "Go away! You are not welcome here!"

It was then that the creature moved. It moved closer from inside the mirror. It looked like he was going to come out of it. It moved forward until its torso and hooded head filled the frame completely.

Link would not let that thing come closer to him. Summoning some strength to his weakening arms he threw the vase towards the upcoming creature. The vase, along with the mirror, exploded in pieces immediately. The blue and white ceramic pieces of the vase and the shards of the mirror fell noisily onto the floor.

Link approached the broken shards cautiously and looked over them. There was no creature to be seen there; just his boyish image was reflected a dozen times in the broken mirror pieces on the floor. He sighed wearily, now he had to clean up the new mess. But if breaking some of his belongings made the ghost to go away and his mind to fall into place, then it worth the panic tantrum.

A shiver ran down his neck. He felt some warm air kiss the back of his neck, making the short hairs from his arms to rise up. He brought a hand to his back neck and at the same time he turned, just to be faced by the nightmarish ghost.

He gasped once more at it, stumbling back and failing to keep his balance. He fell close to the mirror broken shards. He looked up. The ghost was looking at him but did not move an inch.

He did not let another wave of fear to engulf him again. Feeling dizzy, he stood up quickly and tackled the creature in front of him.

Or so he thought.

He felt forward, landing on his hands and feet. It was weird; he swore he had it right there, but he felt like he tackled – or touched - nothing at all.

He grunted as he stood up slowly, frowning at how heavy his limbs felt. He looked around wildly until he spotted the quiet yet menacing ghost figure. It was right behind him, standing over the broken mirror shards. If it had any feet, they were completely covered by its long cloak.

Link almost roared with fury when he threw himself into the monster again. When he reached it, the ghost disappeared from his sight, and Link forced himself to halt before colliding into the wall and table in front of him. He turned and immediately spotted the ghost once again. The hooded thing was standing near the door and was staring at him.

Frustration began to course through him. He watched as the creature stood nailed in place, unwilling to leave his spot. Link felt mocked and humiliated by the horrible uninvited guest. It was taunting him for no apparent reason. And if it wanted to play, he was in no mood to play along with him.

He had enough. He crouched and grabbed the largest mirror shard from the floor. It had a pointy end and sharp edges to use the piece as a knife-like weapon. He was breathing heavily; it was getting harder to breathe through his nose and a warm feeling ran through his bloodstream. He tried to dismiss it, but the effort was costing him some energy. He raised his hand and threw himself towards the creature once more. He brought the shard down with enough force to stab it. Link wanted it to be dead, to be gone.

But he stabbed nothing. Link saw in awe how his hand penetrated the ghost's body as if there was nothing but air in front of him. He felt no force or matter for his makeshift weapon to cut or stab. He stared at the shard; it was clean, no blood or any kind of fluid was covering the glass.

Link looked at the creature. He felt his yellow eyes staring at him, as if admiring the young man that lived there. His stare was burning him, but the same burning sensation gave some kind of warmth to the cold environment. Yet, he denied to think that whatever he was witnessing was a cruel joke made up by his own mind. He waved a hand through the thing's body, but touched nothing but air. He waved it a few times more but the results were the same. The ghost was there and not there at the same time; and the impossibility made him shiver from both cold and mounting panic.

_No way. This is impossible…_

"Wh-what… what are you…?" He managed to say, his uneasiness was reflected in his voice. "Just what-?"

Suddenly, the ghost made a step back, not turning its eyes from Link. Then another step back. Link frowned. He cautiously took a step closer to the ghost; the wooden floor creaked softly under his feet. But at the sound of it, the ghost turned its back violently at him and walked at an unnatural speed through the door…

…through the closed, locked door.

Link blinked and opened his eyes wide. He just saw a ghost, a real ghost. It had to be, there was no other credible explanation. It was the weirdest thing he'd ever experienced: he broke his mirror trying to get rid of the thing inside his house, yet it only took one step and a creaking sound to make it go away. And it must had been the one who left the water mess and the footprints on the floor earlier in the morning.

_But… Do ghosts have feet? _He thought as he scratched his head absently.

Either way, it was gone. Away from his house. He should be happy now that calm had returned to his home.

But he was not.

The ghost was gone, but it left leaving an uncomfortable aura about him. Link felt that the ghost was still there; not entirely with him but away from him. The sensation was making him feel somehow dirty. And that, mixed with his cold was too much to handle.

Rubbing his temple, he debated whether he should clean up the broken mirror and vase or to do it later and go to sleep. He exchanged looks from his bed to the mess on the floor. Then he looked at the closed door. He unlocked it and stood on the porch.

"Gods, it's cold." He thought aloud.

The light, cold breeze blew through the place. The seas of snow covered the ground and the rest was accumulated on the tree branches and leaves. It was snowing lightly. The full moon stood up high in the sky; its light filtered weakly through the fog that the condensed water and cold weather created. It gave a bluish tint to the environment outside.

Link looked down from the porch, and noticed a set of footprints pressed over the snow. They started at the foot of his ladder and continued the way toward the outskirts of the village. Away from his house.

_Indeed, ghosts have feet._

He knew he was not gone yet, his aching gut was telling him that. He had to be sure that it was gone once and for all.

He made a decision. Between the bed and the mess, he chose the door.

He searched for his winter cloak and boots. He took the oil lantern from the table and checked for the oil level. Half of the oil was already consumed, but it was enough to last another two hours. He lighted up the lantern and headed towards the door. He was risking his health by going out in the night in such unstable weather and low temperature. His condition could worsen just by showing his nose out the window. But he was determined to search for the truth, and if he had to make some sacrifices in order to obtain it, let this little cold be the one.

With lantern in hand, he climbed down the ladder and followed the footprints embedded in the snow. Wherever they led, Link was sure he was going to find his answers.

* * *

_A/N: From now on this will take a sharp U-turn to the Angst genre but will keep its T rating. __Be kind and sign a review if you get a chance and let me know what you think. _


	8. Contact

_Previous disclaimers apply._

_A/N: My thanks again to gamegirl07 for helping me on this chapter._

* * *

_**The Ghost Beside Me**_

_**Chapter 8: **__**Contact**_

It was getting more difficult with each passing second as he walked through the snow. Each step he made was draining him of his energy and he was getting tired quicker that he expected. He began to have tunnel vision, and he continuously struggled to regain his clear sight and not let those dark edges to envelope the corner of his eyes. Now his head waited a ton over his shoulders. His ill body was screaming for rest, but he ignored it completely. He had to. That, along with the breeze and the cold, was making his pace slower than usual.

Link noticed his condition was worsening barely five minutes after he began to follow the ghost's footprints in the snow. The moonlight was not helping much, but his lantern provided just the necessary amount of light he needed to continue and to not get lost. Sometimes he felt the lantern light burning his itchy eyes, but he dismissed the feeling by blinking and closing his eyes shut for some seconds. He wondered how much longer he could keep doing that. By that time, his nose was useless, completely clogged. He could see his breath painted in the air each time he exhaled through his mouth.

He followed the trail the ghost left behind with staggering steps. He hoped that the trail was made by the mysterious ghost that taunted him in his nightmares and in his house. He threw away the possibility that the trail was made by some other person from the village for two reasons: first, because no human being in its healthy judgment (beside him) would come out of the house in the middle of the night, let alone in the middle of a snowing; and second, because if that was the case, he would end up looking ten times more stupid that yesterday.

Link halted when the trail suddenly disappeared. There were no more footprints to follow. He looked around the place and throughout the ground, but the trail stopped in the middle of the woods; as if the ghost began to float in the air instead of walking. If it began to fly or it just disappeared into thin air, there was no trail left behind to follow.

Link surveyed the place, and noticed that he was close to the spring entrance. Not wanting to give up yet, he walked to the Ordon Spring in hopes to find something there. The spring was completely covered in snow, not even the colorful flowers or the horseshoe grass was visible through the snow. The small cascade at the end of the spring was frozen. The big pond beneath the cascade was also frozen; the cold temperatures had turned it into solid ice.

Something in the distance caught Link's attention. Close to the frozen cascade, there was an object on the ice. From his spot, the object was red and looked like a cube. He approached the frozen pond edge to take a better look. The object was a pictobox. But when he leaned closer, he recognized it as the old and broken pictobox that he found in his cellar when he was cleaning the place.

He hadn't the faintest idea of how that pictobox could have gotten there. It was not him, he was sure of that. The kids were terrified of his cellar, and any adult from the village was out of question. But considering all the events that he had lived and witnessed in the past couple of days, it would not surprise him that the pictobox grew some legs or wings and brought itself to the spring to take a bath.

However the pictobox got there, it belonged to him, and he wanted it back. He put the lantern in the ground, its light beginning to flicker. He was going to step over the frozen pond, but hesitated and stepped back. If he stepped with too much force over the ice, it might break, so as shot as his nerves were, he decided to take things with more easiness.

He put one foot over the ice tentatively. When he was sure nothing negative was going to happen, he put the other. Nothing creaked, nothing moved. As soon as he tried to walk toward the farthest part of the pond, the breeze blew a little stronger over him as more snowflakes continued to fall over the place. Almost instantly, he started to hear things. Again.

They were whispers and whistlers combined. Link didn't move as he recalled those same noises some days ago, right before all this nonsense happened. That day, the whispers seemed lost, flying away with no destiny ahead. But this time was different. He could hear them clearly. There was some kind of voice hidden under the wind sounds. He closed his eyes as he let the whistling sounds enter his ears.

"_Sssssss…" _It was a sound with "S", perhaps a word with the letter _"S"._ He listened harder despite his piercing headache. _"Sssssttoooopp…"_

He covered his mouth with his hands as some coughs came out of his chest. With each cough, he got dizzier and his body hurt a little more. The pain was not making him think with the clarity he needed at that moment. He began to consider that getting out of his house the way he felt to hunt down ghosts and other unseen spirits was not a good idea after all, and that the ghost he saw at his house was his fever frying his brain cells.

Slowly, he made a few steps forward and farther into the frozen pond.

"_Sssttooopppp…"_

Link felt the ice beneath him creak a little under his feet and stopped instantly. Perhaps the ice was not thick enough to support him for long. He looked back over his shoulder. He was almost half the way and much more closer to the pictobox spot than before. He did not want to go back now, not when he was so close to it.

"_Don't go…"_ The wind spoke to him. "Ssstop…"

Whoever or whatever was talking to him, he didn't and won't want to listen. No one was going to tell him what to do. Not Rusl, not Ilia, and certainty none of his freaking mind voices. From now on, he was going to make things his own way, whether they like it or not.

Very, very slowly, he kneeled over the ice and managed to position himself on his belly. That way his weight would be distributed more evenly through the ice and therefore the possibilities that the ice layer would break under him were minimal. With his head and eyes looking forward, he began to drag himself with his arms through the ice layer. The cold layer made his hands go numb. He was shivering. He needed to hurry.

"_Link…"_ At his inability to make the young man to obey its orders, the wind decided to use his name.

_Shut up… You stop._

"_Linnnnk…"_

"S-screw y-you!" Link replied angrily to the wind as he dragged his body to the frozen cascade. His jaw quivered with cold and sickness.

"_Don't…"_

"I won't listen t-to you… anymore!" He said out of his own, his tone filled with fury and mortification. He didn't care about anything anymore; forget the ghosts, the visions, the sounds, the darn weather… he wanted it all to stop. He wanted peace back to his life and that annoying voice was making him furious.

"_Hear me Link…"_

Ignoring the voice and closing himself up to the rest of the world, he finally reached the foot of the cascade where the pictobox was. He kneeled as he grabbed it. Link smiled mischievously - like a little boy who found his lost toy. The object felt warm in his hand, and he enjoyed whatever sensation it could bring to his cold limbs. That old pictobox belonged to him but at the same time it was a reward for not letting his paranoia to gain total control over him.

Totally forgetting where he was, he stood up carelessly; his mind and eyes completely absorbed by the pictobox in his hands. When he started to walk away, the ice creaked noisily. Link frowned in confusion. The creaking sound continued to fill the silent spring. He looked down and was horrified to see that the ice layer that covered the pond was breaking. The spidery cracks on the ice ran all around his spot, the pond's deepest part.

"What..?" He gasped. He didn't understand. He had never been so careless in his life. How could he forget where he was?

Link watched petrified as the ice cracked under him. The ice could not resist anymore. With a loud and final crack, the ice layer gave up and broke under his feet. Icy water splashed soundly as Link's body sank into the pond water below the frozen layer. The situation turned out to be desperate enough for him to drop the pictobox and totally forget about it. He frantically took hold of the broken ice's edge, clinging to it. Sinking his nails on the ice, he prayed for the edge to hold on and not to collapse. More than half of his body was submerged in the water, the water covered him from the chest down. The water was so freezing that he didn't feel his legs move, they were paralyzed by the cold. It was a terrible feeling, as if his legs were cut off from the rest of his body.

"Please hold on… Please hold on…" Link pleaded over and over again.

He tried to tighten his precarious grip, but he saw helplessly how his nails slipped through the slippery ice, causing his weakened body to sink deeper into the icy water. If things could not get any worst, the ice edge on which Link was holding on began to crack. Link hold was causing to break faster.

"No, oh please no…" Link whispered. He closed his eyes against it all.

The ice gave in and the ice broke. Link's hands could not take hold of it any longer. His hands slipped over, and so did Link, disappearing completely below the ice waters of Ordon Spring.

Feeling the cold water all around him was like being crushed by hundreds of iron anvils. The low temperature penetrated his skin easily and reached his bone in a matter of seconds. He didn't remember anything hurting his body so bad than freezing water. What he felt was agonizing; he couldn't move his legs or his arms, so he could not swim to the surface. And when eyes opened his eyes under the water, if felt like they froze into ice orbs and that someone with knives was trying to tear them away from its sockets.

Strange enough, he could move his neck. He looked up with much effort. The water ripples, illuminated by the faint moonlight, was the only thing he could see above him. The rest around him was turning darker and darker as he sunk deeper into the pond. The surface ripples were getting farther away from him, along with his hope. He was so sure that he was going find some answers, or at least some peace to his messy mind. Oh he was so wrong.

He could not take it anymore; he was sick, weak, and miserable. He was unable to battle against the nature around him. Not even his winter clothes could protect him from the cold that was slowly enveloping him. It was inevitable, he was going to die. He showed no resistance as he let his body to completely detach from his soul. His fear and panic morphed into some sort of calmness inside him. He didn't feel the water entering through his nose and mouth, and for that he was thankful. If that was what death was like, it wasn't so bad.

He felt somewhat sorry for the villagers; perhaps they will note his absence and began to look for him even under the rocks. But he knew that, by the time anyone finds him, it would be too late. Perhaps it was the best for all of them, including himself.

And so, he closed his eyes and let his dead weight to finish the job to take him to the bottom of the pond.

Something grabbed his floating arms. He got started at the sensation that ran through his cold skin. It took him some seconds to realize that what grabbed him was actually a hand. It was small in size, but its grip was very firm and strong. When he felt the grip in his hand, he grabbed the unknown person's forearm, more out of instinct than for his desire to live. He noticed that the forearm, as well as the hand grabbing him, was small and felt slender on his hand. Had somebody found him?

In a split second, his arm was pulled with great strength and velocity. Another split second later his entire body was pulled out from the water. Link found himself laying down on his stomach over the pond's ice layer and with that, the grip and pressure on his arm disappeared, along with any presence he could feel around him. This time the ice patch was closer to the pond's edge and in the shallowest part of it.

His body reacted quickly. He coughed violently as the water he swallowed along with other secretions was expelled painfully from his lungs. More water dripped from his hair, face, and clothes. He shivered violently and he couldn't control it. He couldn't think in anything else apart of how cold he was. He needed to move; at least if he moved it could bring some of the warmth he was craving for at that moment.

Link clumsily dragged his body toward safe ground and away from the spring water. In a moment when he lifted his heavy eyes, he spotted his lantern. Its light flickered but continued burning oil. Light was fire, and fire was hot. And he needed to get close to something hot, no matter how small it was.

As tired and disjointed and he felt, he struggled to get closer to the tiny source of heat. When he finally reached it, his arms could not hold his weight any longer. He let himself fall on his side, his face facing the lantern's flame, helpless and weak. Soon he realized that the position was causing him more pain on his shoulders. So he rolled on his back with some effort and laid totally spread on the snow. He turned his head so he could still feel the lantern heat in his face. After that, he couldn't even move a single hair. He was so sleepy; he closed his eyes, hoping that this time he would die for good.

A minute passed, and he felt a presence somewhere around him. He listened to some small and light steps coming so ever close to him, even when his ears felt so clogged. He could feel as the person kneeled beside him, its knees close to his face. Then, he felt a hand. A small, soft hand was touching his face, almost caressing his frozen cheek. Another even warmer hand held his other cheek; the simple gesture felt so good that he wanted it to last forever. With great care, both hands turned his head to the other side. He felt a hand stroking his damp hair while the other kept holding his cold cheek. It was then that curiosity hit him harder than ever, and he was forced to open his eyes.

His sight was extremely blurry, and he was afraid that if his did so much as to blink, he could no longer keep his eyelids open. He made a super human effort to focus his sight to the thing that hovered over him in slow motion. It was not the black and absent void from the ghost, it was a face, but it looked distorted in his eyes. It had a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth… Yes, it was a human being's face. If it was a man's or a woman's, he couldn't tell. The blurriness dissipated a little, and the person's distorted features slowly began to fall into place.

Two shiny brown eyes took form and a second later, two slightly parted thin lips came into view. The hair was pulled back by something he couldn't distinguish; perhaps with a ribbon. The loose hair strands moved softly as the cold wind toyed with it. The face was small, well-cared, and its white skin looked soft and youthful. Through his tired and screaming mind, he soon realized that the person who was stroking his hair and cheeks was a woman; a good and caring woman.

Link did not move. He stared blankly at her, but did not recognize her; he was too much in pain to look for faces in his memory vault.

"Pleeeassse… I… need… helllp…" He whispered to the woman by his side. He did not felt his mouth move at all. He closed his eyes in defeat.

When he opened them again, he saw how her lips moved in slow motion, as if saying something. He could not listen to what she was saying. All he heard was muffled whispers inside a sea of nothingness.

Suddenly, the fragile clarity Link was clinging on started to drift away. His body began to feel numb, and the desire to sleep became more dominant by the second. He pleaded the woman for comfort with his hurt eyes. Then, that desperate moment was followed by an awkward moment.

Link noticed for the first time the lady's beauty. Her blond hair looked combed, and her skin seemed to glow and sparkled. In other situations he could admire such a pretty face for hours.

"So pretty…" He gasped weakly in awe. He wanted to touch her face, but he felt no sensibility in his hands to feel or in his arms to lift them. In that moment, a feeling of serenity engulfed his being, washing some of his pain away as is eyesight darkened little by little. He was tired yet he fought to get hold of his fading consciousness, to cling to that strange feeling of safety he was getting in his gut since she was there with him.

"So… beautiful…" he whispered, but no audible words were coming out of his lips. "Don't… leave…"

The dark veil covered him entirely, but his savior – his beautiful goddess – stood by his side until the last hint of color turned black.

TBC...

* * *

_A/N: Sorry if Link may look a little out of character, but his behavior is essential for the sake of the story. Besides, it's weird to see Link showing his feelings in the games, so I really like the idea of exploring them while writing._

_Be kind. Review. And thanks for reading, always._


	9. Realization

_Previous disclaimers apply._

**_The Ghost Beside Me_**

_**Chapter 9: **__**Realization**_

Rusl sat on the living room sofa holding a cup full of steaming tea. He sniffed the fragrant smell of the sweet herbs before sipping a little, careful enough to not burn his lips. Uli was a wonderful cook, and there weren't any doubt that she also dominated the arts of making teas and other concoctions. The tea warmed his body almost instantly.

"The house is so cold tonight, and quiet too." Uli said in an exasperated tone from some part of the house. "I'm missing Colin already."

"I wouldn't worry too much about him. Not that I don't care about him though." Rusl commented. "I am sure he is having some fun at Talo's. They must be playing, jumping around their beds… They will not let the cold weather to hold them down in boredom."

Uli's laughter was heard in the distance. "You are right. We have quite a hyperactive son."

"Yeah," the mustached man smiled as he took another sip of coffee.

His son. His most precious treasure.

Not only the mention of the word _son_ reminded him of his blond haired boy Colin, but also reminded him of his surrogate son, Link. There wasn't a moment when he didn't think of him as an offspring of his own. Ever since Adryll's untimely death, he and his wife promised to her in her deathbed to take care of him and love him as she would had done. They all gave their best efforts to raise the orphaned toddler the best they could - along with the other villagers. The gods and spirits were ever-present witnesses to that. With the passing time, Link turned into a handsome and caring young man full of life. Neither he nor Uli had failed to break that promise.

The news about his dead mother was surely a blow to him. All of the sudden, Link became distraught and somewhat clumsy. Now he was suffering from a cold from his usual stubbornness, but it wasn't helping matters either. The least Rusl wanted for Link was to be bed-ridden while dealing with this recent discovery.

Rusl placed the empty cup on the coffee table and stood up. He put on his winter boots and coat, then he headed to the door.

"Uli, I'm going out tonight."

"You are going out with this weather?" Uli asked as she came into the living room. "Where are you going?"

"I'm visiting Link. I'm going to check how he is. Last time I saw him looked quite sick."

"Oh really?" Uli sounded concerned. She didn't know he was sick. He was fine the last time he talked to him.

"Yeah, he looked pretty messed up. But don't worry, if I see Link is okay, I'll be right back, I promise."

"Wait, wait." Rusl turned when Uli urged him to stop. "Can I go with you?"

Rusl smiled at how innocent her question sounded. "Of course you can. In fact, I'm sure he will feel better the instant he sees you."

After Uli changed her clothes to some warmer ones, the couple headed to Link's house.

* * *

It was coldness of the snow around him what made Link to come around his senses - or most of them. He felt the air being pulled inside his mouth by his starving lungs. As the humid air entered his lungs, it evaporated any moisture that was left in his mouth. He swallowed dry, the sore knot in his throat made him desist of doing it a second time. As he opened his eyes, the moonlight was the first thing to greet him. With blurry eyes he saw the moon floating high in the sky and over him.

He grunted as he rolled over, forcing his body to kneel on the snow, and forcing his mind to understand. He wasn't shivering as much as he should be; perhaps his body got used to the cold weather. He surveyed the place, looking for something that could make him remember. But the pale, bluish light was not helping his weary eyes. The piercing headache made him wince and his face contorted with pain. He lifted a hand to his head.

"Ughh," he grunted. He surveyed the place for a second time, looking for something, or someone.

Looking for her.

The woman. He wanted to see her; he wanted to drown into her bright eyes. He wanted to feel her presence, to feel her warm embrace.

But she was nowhere to be found.

He lost her. No one was there to safe him. He was alone again.

"Hey," he called hoarsely, scared of how pathetic his own voice sounded. It didn't make the slight echo sound. The lantern was not giving any light; the oil was burnt completely since who knows when.

A painful shiver ran through his system, and he knew he could not be outside in the wilderness for much longer. He staggered a few times while he stood up, feeling a little uneasy if he could even hold his own weight. When he finally got into his feet, he was panting for air. He doubted that he could made it at least half the way to his house, but all he wanted was to get out of that frozen hell and never come back.

_Home. Home. Just get home…_

"_Come back home…" _He remembered the muted plead of the lady in the ranch._ "Come back home… Come back home…"_

With only the moonlight as his guide, he made his way out of the Ordon Spring. The dark edges on his eyes refused to go away and he was practically walking blind. His survival instinct was what kept him dragging his feet in clumsy and uneven steps. The snow that covered the ground made his legs to scream in pain. He rubbed his shoulders weakly in an attempt to warm them up. The action resulted to be tiresome and brought no relief at all.

Link continued to walk blindly through the place, trusting the way to his moving feet and not to his eyes. It was uncannily quiet. There wasn't any wind blowing around, the trees branches weren't moving, and no snow was falling. His noisy ragged intakes of air were the only thing that assured him he wasn't deaf yet.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally stumped against something hard. He used his hands to identify it, and sighed in relief when he recognized the steps of his house ladder. But he tensed again as he realized that he needed to climb it in order to enter his house.

_You have to do it. Climb it up and then you can rest…_ One by one and ever so slowly, he climbed the steps to his porch. Feeling his energy draining fast, he got hold of the door knob to stand up again. He slumped over the door and he felt drifting away in sleep. He tried to turn the door knob. When it did not budge, he knocked on it heavily, as if someone inside would open it for him.

_No… Please open. I just want to rest a little, that's all._

He could do the hardest jobs at Fado's ranch, he could spend the entire day chopping wood and help anybody with their daily shores. Yet at that moment, he couldn't open his door. He'd never felt so weak and useless in his life. And that feeling made him angry. Stepping back a little, he clashed against the door with his shoulder. The door opened, and with the impact, Link fell to the floor with a loud thud. He groaned as his shoulder resented the hit. He laid on his stomach and didn't move for a minute. He let himself to enjoy the warm sturdiness of his house's wooden floor.

_My house… I made it, I finally made it…_

He managed to kneel on the floor. With shaky hands, he removed his damp shirt, leaving his upper body bare. He began to crawl to where his bed was and with much effort, he lifted his body to his bed. He sunk his body into the blanked, damp, cold and completely tired. He had no energy to think or to move anymore. Once his head rested comfortably in his pillow, he forgot about the world around him and fell asleep immediately.

_A small, soft hand was touching his face, almost caressing his frozen cheek._

_Two shiny brown eyes took form and a second later, two slightly parted thin lips came into view. The hair was pulled back by something he couldn't distinguish…_

…_Its white skin looked soft and youthful…_

"_So pretty…"_

_His beautiful savior._

_His goddess._

_His mother._

Link's eyes snapped open and sat up in the bed, ignoring his migraine and his sore muscles. He glanced at his surroundings, breathing heavily. All of the sudden, he felt uncomfortable, but his weariness was gone and his mind became more alert. Something was wrong. Something was amiss.

His heart beat painfully in his chest as he got out of his bed. He needed to find it, he needed to be sure.

_The pictograph! I have to find it!_

He began to search his house for the pictograph he found in the cellar. He searched the night tables, over the tables, inside his chests… _Where did I put it? Where did I put it?_ He frantically checked under the bed blankets and the pillow, but he could not find it anywhere. Frustration was starting to get over him. In a wave of anger, he threw everything that was on a table to the floor, breaking some of the vases and other decorative elements.

He knelt to look under the armchair, and when he tried to stand up, pain exploded inside his chest and his back. He moaned in discomfort and lowered his forehead until it touched the floor. He hugged his chest as the dull pain thumped rhythmically with his heart. His eyes drifted to the side, and then he saw it.

The pictograph laid unfolded under his bed. Link extended his hand to reach the old pictograph, while the other arm still hugged his sore chest. He grabbed it and began to examine it closely.

_No… it can't be…_

The color of her skin, her small hands, her blond-golden hair, her caring eyes…

Her beauty.

Her resemblance.

_No, no please. It's impossible…_

It was her. It was her all along, from the very beginning. The apparent illusion he saw at the spring, the woman he saw in the ranch, the woman in his dreams… She was the person who pulled him out of his certain death in the spring pond; the woman who knelt by his side while his senses spiraled out of his control. It was the woman his friends called Adryll: his mother, his deceased mother.

He stared at it in complete silence, as he did some days ago. A tear rolled over his cheek as a strangled sob escaped his throat. It did not make any sense, but at the same time it explained it all. Adryll was the woman who gave him life, but also she was the reason of his breakdown. It was an overwhelming mixture of feeling in which Link was swimming and was barely managing to keep his head over the surface.

"Why?" He asked to the pictograph, but it didn't give him any answers. His mother kept staring at him; her smile to him and her newborn baby – himself - in her arms.

"I don't… I-I don't understand. Why?" He begged, his voice finally breaking and giving in to raw emotions. Tears fall down his face at full blast as he cried. He lifted the pictograph and held it against his face, his eyes closed tightly against the impossibility of his situation.

He sobbed as he received no answer to his question. "Why did you do this to me?" He whimpered. He felt humiliated. Was it a punishment? What did he do wrong to deserve that?

"Why did you do this to me?"

* * *

Rusl and Uli walked slowly toward Link's house. The snow was too deep for them to walk properly and in their usual pace. It was cold outside, but their clothes protected him from most of it, avoiding them from getting a chill.

About half an hour later, they arrived at Link's house. Little by little, the light from the moon along with Rusl's lantern, revealed the iconic house.

"Oh look, I think Link is still awake." Uli observed from the distance.

"He may be. The door is open." Rusl added. It was weird; Link never left the door of his house open, not even at broad daylight. Seen the door wide open in the middle of the night made Rusl frown with curiosity.

"Well, let's get inside, shall we?"

Rusl climbed the ladder. Once up there, showed his head shyly through the door.

"Good evening, Link." Rusl said in a low voice.

Link did not answer. Rusl thought he was fast asleep, but he dismissed the possibility because the door was wide open.

Rusl took a few steps forward and entered the dark house. He surveyed the place with the help of his lantern, and what he saw made his heart to beat faster than usual.

The place was a complete mess. Broken glass and pottery were scattered all over the floor. Some of their edges looked sharp enough to slice a foot if somebody carelessly stepped on them. The floor was wet with water puddles. The tables, some books and some clothes were all misplaced and apparently thrown in every direction. With all the mess and destruction around, the place looked dirtier than it may look at first.

Once he saw the mess around him, Rusl's senses were fully alert. He needed to find Link, and fast.

"Link!" The older man called. No sound. No one answered. Rusl was getting very worried. By the looked of it, it looked like a robbery. Perhaps Link was hiding somewhere in the house and didn't listen to him; it seemed quite reasonable. But the chance that the robber might have hurt Link made him tremble with fear.

Trying to control his nerves, he searched the semi dark place avoiding the broken items on the floor. "Link, are you here?" He called again with distress etched in his voice. He was answered by silence.

Noticing the small water puddles on the floor, he decided to follow them. He hoped they would lead him somewhere. The water marks lead them closer to the Link's bed and stopped there, but Link was not on his bed. Out of curiosity and with any reason whatsoever, he placed a hand on the bed's blankets, and frowned as he felt them wet and cold to the touch. He sighed in despair, now he was sure something happened with Link. And it wasn't good.

Rusl shone his lantern to the other side of the bed, and noticed a pair of feet in the floor. As he turned around the bed, the burning light discovered the form of a person lying on its side, its back turned at him.

"Link?" He called as he got closer.

He recognized him immediately. He gasped at the sight of him; it made his blood to run cold in his veins. There, lying in a puddle of water was the unmoving body of his pupil.

TBC...

* * *

_** To those who are/were following this story: It saddens me to announce that this fic is being put **ON HIATUS**. I'd never imagined myself saying this, but it seems that way, and it's possible even for me. If it's temporary of permanent, only time and the readers' interest on it will tell. If there's any interest shown, the chapters that are left in this story are still in my mind waiting to be writte_n.

_Meanwhile, don't be afraid to leave a review, it's not that hard you know..._


	10. It Is What You Want It To Be

_Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda does not belong to me. My imagination is not that great to create such a wonderful world_.

_A/N: Well I'm back for your amusement (or for your pain). Just to remind you that any mistakes are mine and mine alone and... well, enjoy!_

* * *

_**The Ghost Beside Me**_

_**Chapter 10: **__**It Is What You Want It To Be**_

"Oh no…" Rusl hurried and knelt by Link's side. The sight was strange rather disturbing for the mustached man; it was odd enough for Link to sleep on the floor when he had a fine bed to do so, but the fact that he was half naked with such a cold weather hitting his ill frame was something to definitely be worry about.

He rolled him gently on his back, and was surprised at how pale Link looked; he was completely drained of his natural color. The young man was extremely cold when he touched his cheek and noticed that his body was wet. Small waves of panic crawled through his face as he tried to understand what in the world had happened to him.

"Link? Can you hear me boy?" Rusl put a hand under Link's head and lifted it some degrees at the same time that he rubbed his shoulder to give him some warmth. Link stirred unconsciously on the hard floor. "Wake up."

Rusl decided to shook him when the man in his arms peeled his eyes opened. Rusl smiled when he saw that Link was responding, but his hope was dampened when he locked gazes with Link. His eyes were bloodshot and his gaze looked forced and tired. They were empty, lost and darker that usual. For the very first time, Link's eyes lacked the beauty and brilliance that were polished in his ocular pupils since the day he was born.

"Link, are you alright?" He asked in an almost frantic way, and immediately realized how ridiculous that question was.

Link didn't answer and didn't seem to bother in trying to. He blinked tiredly at him, and Rusl feared he did not recognize him at all. He touched his cheek in a comforting way. He didn't react to the action. It was evident that he was not right.

"Who did this to you, son?" Rusl pressed, lowering his voice to hide his growing distress.

"She did," Link whispered with much effort.

At first, Rusl didn't give much credit to what he just said. He mentioned it was a _she_, a woman. So if there was some kind of trespassing, the perpetrator was a female person. But the possibility that the same person attacked him was something he could not draw in his imagination. Link was young and strong, in addition that he possessed some combat knowledge that Rusl taught him; so he knew that Link could defend himself even with his health partly against him.

"Who? Link who hurt you?"

He raised a trembling hand and showed it to Rusl. Rusl saw that he was holding something. Confused, he took the crumbled thing from Link's hand and took a quick look at it. It was a pictograph of a woman that he could had recognized no matter how many years had passed.

It was a pictograph of Adryll and baby Link in her arms. But… why?

"It-It was her… all a-along…" Link managed to say to his mentor between labored gasps of air, struggling to stay awake.

Rusl felt lost at his words. Was he referring to Adryll? _No way._ Link was not thinking right; he was blaming his deceased mother for his actual predicament? Now he was sure that Link was delusional.

After Link said that, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body slackened in Rusl's embrace, and the older man saw helplessly as Link finally lost his weak grip on consciousness.

"Rusl?" Someone called from outside. It was Uli. In the rush of dread and fear, he forgot that he left Uli behind. His mind was screaming to him; he didn't want Uli to witness this horrible scenario, didn't want her to see the boy she care so much for in that inexplicable and sickening state. She would succumb to hysteria instantly.

"Is Link asleep? You've been so quiet since you enter-?" Rusl heard how Uli stop talking to let herself gasp. He heard how she walked ever so slowly over the shattered and broken things on the floor, careful not to get hurt by them. He could tell by her occasional gasps and slow pace that she was scared.

"Rusl?" Uli called, fear clearly reflected in her voice.

"Uli!" Rusl replied. "I'm here!"

It did not take Uli more that five seconds to find the two men hidden behind the bed. She gasped at what she saw. For some reason Rusl was on the floor holding Link's body, who appeared to be asleep in his arms. More that worry and confusion were etched in his facial features.

Uli ran toward them and kneeled beside Link. "Oh Rusl, what happened here?" She asked frantically. He touched Link's cheek with a trembling hand. She gasped again as she was tempted to retrieved her hand from his ashen face. "He's so cold! For the gods' sake, what happened to him?"

"I don't know. I-I just found him here. He was out cold and-and…" Rusl stammered nervously.

"I'll go for help," Uli began to stand up.

"No Uli, wait!" Rusl stopped her. "First, let's get him to his bed. I need you to changes the bed's sheets."

Uli headed to the bed and retrieved the sheets that were covering it, frowning when she felt them damp and cold. She then hurried to the nearby dresser to find some clean, fresh blankets. Her eyes often drifted to Rusl and Link's figures. She saw how her husband kept holding the kid's frame close to him, stroking his hair and giving him as much body heat as he could – just like he had done with his own son Colin countless times before.

"Rusl," Uli signaled him.

The older man tested his physical strength by lifting Link into his arms. Link made no sound as he was lifted. At first Rusl groaned; although he had not reached his fourties yet, the effort of lifting a young grown-up's dead weight represented a challenge to him at his age, but was surprised at how light he was. Surely the past days and his illness took some weight off from him, but he never considered how much. He laid his ward tenderly on his bed and Uli immediately covered him with a couple of blankets and a quilt.

"His clothes still wet," Uli observed. "I need to retrieve them or our effort to warm him up will be for nothing."

Very carefully, she slid her hand under the blankets that covered him. She searched with her hands until she touched the wet clothes that were on Link's lower body. She handled the pieces of clothes with so much care as if she was handling an explosive object; she didn't want Link to feel he was being undress in front of them. She protected his dignity. But Link didn't seem to notice the movements that lingered over him. Once Uli took off the wet clothes she threw then along with the pile of dirty blankets.

He kneeled over the fallen man. He gently brushed the damp strands of hair off his forehead with her fingers. Link didn't react to her relatively warm touch, he didn't even flinch. That worried her even more.

"Link?" She called him softly. "Can you hear me dear?"

Link didn't move. It was obvious that his mind was somewhere else and was not listening to her calling his name.

"He doesn't look hurt," Uli commented as she tucked Link. She noted how the boy gasped for air through his mouth from time to time. "I don't see any bruises. He looks sick though."

Rusl was inspecting the door, seemly looking for something. Then he moved to the nearest window and did the same. "And I thought some thief broke in here. But I'm starting to believe that no one was here at all." He said while inspecting the window lock. "The door looks undisturbed, and so are the windows here."

"If this was no thief's work, then how do you explain the mess?" Uli questioned him.

Rusl turned to see his wife kneeling at Link's bedside. He looked around the placed, then he gave Uli a troubled look. She studied his husband's face for a minute. It seemed to be only one explanation to Uli's question, and he just answered her with his face.

"You think Link trashed his own place?" Her voice gasped. Rusl knew she would not like the answer. "Rusl that's – that doesn't make any sense! This is Link we are talking about, he would never do this."

"I know it's not in his character to have a tantrum or anything like that – even if he's in a bad mood. But you even said that he was not acting like his old self since he visited you two or three days ago. Perhaps that discovery, along with his routine and he being sick - and his emotions toward it… Dear, I wouldn't dump the possibility that he… snapped." Rusl tried to reason.

Uli had no words to say. The explanation was irrational to her undertanding. She took care of him since he was a child, and she knew that he grew up to be the sweetest, kindest young man in the whole village. She could not accept that her surrogated son could lost his mind and able to succumb into such destructive behavior.

"Besides," Rusl added after a pause. "He woke up for a minute after I found him."

Uli raised her eyes to him.

"I was trying to understand what happened and asked him who hurt him, and he gave me this."

Rusl gave Uli the pictograph Link was holding when he found him. She looked at it and her eyes went wide when she recognized the crumbled image. It was the pictograph that Link claimed to had found in the cellar; the pictograph of young Adryll and baby Link. Uli didn't seem to understand what was the relationship between that and the apparent incident that left Link weak and cold.

"He said she did it," Rusl added softly.

Uli covered her mouth with one hand as she held the pictograph with the other. In that moment, she felt like she was slapped in her face. Shivers ran through her already shot nerves and she felt she was going to pass out. She diverted her glance from the pictograph and gave a looked at Link; he was still unconscious, his sleep seemed to be free of any wandering dreams or nightmares. He breathed was steady but raspy through his parted, bluish lips. His skin was white as the snow outside the house and his eyelids had a purplish tint and looked sunken. In that moment, she realized he'd made a mistake.

"This is my fault," Uli's voice almost broke.

Rusl looked at her, confused.

"It's my fault that Link is in this predicament. I shouldn't have waited so long to tell him about Adryll – about his mother. And now that he finally knows he didn't take it very well." Her voice trailed off. Her face contorted in a sad expression and she looked like she was about to cry. "Oh gods, what have I done? Why did I-?"

If the picture of Link lying unconscious on the floor gave him a heartache, seeing Uli breaking down into tears broke his heart completely. He hurried to her side and hugged her, offering his unconditional comfort to her. Uli hugged him back.

"No Uli. Please, don't do this to yourself." Rusl hushed her. "This is not your fault my dear."

"Adryll will never forgive me for this. I promise her to look over Link, and I had failed her. I had failed Link too." Uli held her sobs back, but tears were already rolling down her face.

"We didn't fail anybody, not Adryll and certainty not Link. We gave him everything we could along with our love. Adryll would have been very proud after seeing that we all raised such a beautiful man."

Rusl broke the embrace and cupped Uli's teary face in his hands. He smiled tenderly at her; not even the tears on her face could take her beauty away.

"I did what I could." Uli mumbled.

"Me too honey. Me too."

Link coughed weakly in his sleep. They both turned their gazes to Link. The young man showed no signs of waking. He was oblivious to the sorrow near him. Once his coughing stopped, Uli took Link's cold hand into hers and caressed it. "Adryll loved him," Uli remembered while being totally absorbed by the young man's sickly appearance. "He was everything to her."

Rusl was silent for a moment, thinking, until he finally spoke. "But she was not to him."

To that she didn't reply, for Uli knew he was right.

* * *

The first sensation Link registered was a firm yet comfortable material under his hands. Seconds later, he felt it under his stomach, his chest and finally, pressing under the right side of his face. Slowly he lifted up his head and a sea of white greeted his sight, and the image of snow and the possibility of lying on those darn snowflakes clogged his mind. But strange enough, he didn't feel cold. In fact, he felt nothing… nothing at all.

He moved until he knelt and stretched his muscles lazily, and smiled. He felt good, hadn't felt this good in quite a time. Nothing hurt, his bones responded to his commands – he felt just perfect. After so many days he was feeling good. Finally!

Looking down, he expected so see some of that warm snow he supposed he was on. Or perhaps it was the hard wooden floor of his house. But was he saw disappointed him in some way, for it was not snow or wood what was under his knees. Link was kneeled in what appeared to be some form of white mist widely dispersed over the place; not a single patch of soil was visible through the thick mist. He was filled with amazement and uneasiness. He leaned over a little to touch the white ground, but his hand came out mostly clean. He watched as some of the mist floated over his hand until it evaporated completely.

Everything was silent; not the deafening kind but the silence someone like to listen when the desire to think or rest engulfed the body. It was relaxing. His then serene nerves began to give him shivers when he decided to stand up. His movements were coordinated and swift, reassuring him that he was not ill anymore. Another relief, but yet he knew in the very back of his good understanding that something wasn't entirely right. As he stood up and looked to the front, he could not give credit to the scenery in front of him.

The mist sea extended as far as his eyes could reach, giving the impression that he was standing in a huge cloud. A number of small fairies were flying close to the compacted mist. They were colored in shades of white, pink and green. The mist collided in the horizon with the sky, or something like that. The sky there was a mixture of gray, purple and blue, making it difficult to figure out which color dominated over the others. Complementing the view there were big gazebo-like structures scattered all over the place. The rounded marble roofs were held by six beautifully crafted pillars, creating arches at the top of their unions. They shined as if they were polished every day.

The place was beautiful, too beautiful to be real. He felt like he was in heaven. But Link felt so overwhelmed by what he was seeing that he started to question himself in what kind of place he was standing – in what kind of place he walked in without noticing.

_Am I dead? Am I really… dead?_

The possibility of his own passing didn't surprise Link to the point of dismay. His mind didn't suppress the last events of his life. He perfectly knew what happened to him – or so he thought. He remembered getting sick because of his exposure to the storm and when he fell into the icy waters of the spring. He supposed that his mortal body could not take the low temperatures and gave up, causing his lungs to stop working and his heart to stop. He must have died after he passed out and fortunately, he didn't felt anything when that happened.

And now his immortal body and consciousness were there; in a realm beyond his imagination, feeling unworthy of standing in a small piece of heaven when his recent actions didn't deserve such a reward.

A fairy flied from the low mist until it floated a few inches away from Link's nose. He extended his open hand, and the fairy posed itself on the man's fingers; its tiny wings were flapping softly.

Link smiled at the delicate life form in his hand. That little fellow could be his new pet in this new place. He would take care of it as he did with Epona in life.

_If this is what the afterlife looks like, then being dead in not so bad. _He thought.

Somehow, the fairy got startled and began to float in the air. It looked as if it was scared be something. It trembled in the air until it flied away from his hand and from where he was standing.

"Hey…" the young man gasped at the fairy's sudden. He surprised himself when he heard his own voice echoing in the place. That fairy looked so happy in his hand. Was his ugly and dead face what made it flee? Did he make an inappropriate face to it without noticing? Did someone behind him scare it away?

It did not matter anymore. With a long yet uneasy sigh full of resignation, Link turned ready to explore what appeared to be his new home for the rest of eternity. But the utopian landscape was blocked by and horrific thing merely feet away from him and, at the same time, knew what gave the poor fairy the creeps.

The ghost – the monster from his nightmares - was there, in front of him.

With him, in the afterlife.

_No_, the young man's mind screamed. _Not here too…_

Link almost gasped. He felt how his stomach turned upside down and his nerves jumped with sudden panic waves. It was it: the same ratty cloak, the faceless eyes, its ghostly aura covering the frame from head to – to whatever it had in its feet's place…

He was wrong all along. That place was not the utopian kingdom of the gods. It must be the netherealm. He had heard of it when he was a kid: the tales of a place where evil souls were doomed to wander, surrounded by false landscapes and pursued by the person's worst nightmares.

But wherever he was going to spend the rest of the world's time, he would not let his nightmares to ruin his eternal existence.

Link could not tear his eyes away from the ghost, who remained unmoved at its spot, floating over the mist. He wanted to run away from it. In his panicked state, the control over his body faltered. He made a step back, but fell down on his behind at the very first attempt. To his dismay, he found himself unable to move properly without feeling shivers all through his skin. Once again – and as if he was very much alive – the air became thin and his own breathing was not helping him to control his fear.

The ghost moved, and Link had to choke back a sob. That was it; the ghost was going to torment him and eat him and tear his limbs apart one by one. He tried not to be scared, he tried to dismiss such a terrible feeling, but he was as terrified as the first time he dreamed about it. That was his curse; to live in fear for everything he'd done – for all the awful things he recently said to his friends, for the unjustified anger he fired to his own past, to the least people who deserved it. He just realized in the most painful way how little it takes for the gods to take away what you earned in life.

In the instants of growing terror, he wished for his friends to be with him. He wished for dear Uli and Rusl, wished for sweet Ilia and his compassive father Bo. He wished for Epona… for Colin and Sera and every Ordonian he knew. He hated to admit it, but he wanted to be with them back on Earth. Hungered for their comfort, for their support.

A tear finally made his way out of his eyes. Where were they when he needed them? Why weren't they with him? He looked around the big cloud in desperation, not even the lady from the spring was there.

_The lady from the spring…_

…_and the ranch._

The lady from his dreams.

His mother…

Now he wanted to cry his misery away. Oh how much he longed her presence near him. How he wished to feel those warm hands over him again – or only touching his shoulder, that would be enough for him. He felt the urged to see her face again, her brilliant and smiling face. But all he had close to him was the nightmarish and disgusting sight of that unwanted ghost. That alone was torture to his now fragile mind.

The ghost kept moving ever so slowly toward Link's slumped form on the mist. He tried to crawl away from it, but each time he moved back the ghost hovered twice as fast as him. When he could no longer bear the flaming sight of the specter over him and inside his brain, he close his eyes shut. But to no avail, the sickly thing had already stuck in his conscience. Physically and mentally, he was trapped.

In another shot of desperation, he tried to recall any other thing in his mind. Conversations could work; perhaps it'll make it disappear or make him wake up from this nightmare, if that was the case. He summoned the voices, the accents, the messages they carried…

"_Link? Link, say something. Anything…"_

"…You've got to feel something."

"_Link! Don't talk like that…"_

"…_Don't let it get into you."_

No no no… Link shook his head. He was summoning the wrong images. His own memories were making things worst. Ilia's sermons and upset voice was the least he wanted to remember.

The ghost kept moving. Link needed to think in something else.

_"Good morning Link. I didn't notice you were here."_

Yes, Rusl's reassuring voice sounded cheery and happy. What was the last thing they talk about?

_"It was exactly three days after her passing…"_

_"She was a good friend of mine…"_

_No! Not that bit, please!_ He was sure it was going to upset him more. Link gripped his head with both his hands, digging his fingertips into his forehead and scalp. He saw how the menacing ghost kept slowly moving to his spot, but getting closer to him nonetheless. He tried to block the flow of memories, but they were already running at full blast. At that time, he was sure he was going crazy. He closed his eyes shut.

"…_I understand that you may feel confused about it."_

"_All she told you is the truth and it's real…"_

"…_it is what you want it to be."_

_What?_ Link forced his mind to repeat that last line for a second time.

"_It is what you want it to be."_

That single line had struck deep into his unconscious understanding for some reason. But he could not find any meaning to that yet. It was so weird; there was the creature form his nightmares about to grab him and yet he was running wild trying to understand what the hell Rusl meant by that.

"_It is what you want it to be."_

_It is what you want it to be… It is what you want it to be… _What is it that he wanted it to be? Was there a thing he wanted to change? Is there anything in his power to make things change for good? But why now? Why did those things come to him in that desperate moment?

In a sudden spark of understanding, Link opened his eyes wide and – gulping hard – he stared at the ghost's yellow eyes. For days it had controlled his mood, his feeling and his actions. He saw how it was responsible for his restless nights and his unlikely behavior toward others and toward himself. _It_, a creation of his own mind, controlling him? Now he felt like a complete fool. He was not a child or a teenager anymore to be afraid of nightmares and ghosts. But the worst part is that he let it transform him into a bitter, not-so-nice person. He was not going to let it happen again. Not in life and certainty not in death.

He was finally beginning to understand. He could change _it_ - he had to, must to. _It_ was a product of his distressed mind and therefore he had the power to change it, to defeat it. If he would have managed things in other ways, perhaps the monster in front of him would had been something else; an animal, a rock, a tree… a person. Someone else.

Someone who cares.

When the ghost was barely a foot away from his grounded form, it stopped abruptly. A single fairy flied from the repelled flock to the ghost's covered feet. In a graceful way, the fairy began to fly around the specter's figure. As it reached the top of its head, the sparkly trail it left surrounded the ghost as a swirl vine. At the same time Link saw the transformation that was taking place in front of his wide opened eyes.

The ghost's torn cloak disappeared and was instantly replaced by a clean, green cloak. The eyes was were watching him so intently seemed to close under its shadowy eyelids and shining no more, even its height seemed to shrink significantly. In a blink of an eye, the specter's repugnant shape turned into a different entity. No more dirty and old look that scared Link and no more menacing stances, but it still had some strange aura around it. In fact, it was even nice to look at the new sight in front of him.

Or not so new at all. Link could've sworn he'd seen it before.

When Link could not understand anymore what was going on, the ghost – or whatever it was now – knelt before him until its cloaked head was at his level. Its face was still covered by shadows, and Link wanted so bad to see its face, ugly or not.

As if the ghost had read his mind, two hands appeared from the cloak's long sleeves; two small, human, and normal hands. Slowly the hands retrieved the green hood to reveal a mop of golden hair, and the soft-smiling face of a woman. It was a shock and he could barely find his breath, but Link recognized the woman immediately. He recognized the gentle eyes looking at him, and the delicate yet strong hands that carried the baby – him – in the pictograph he found at his house. The same hands that lulled him when he was fading away in the spring.

In front of him was the lady from the spring, from the ranch. From his dreams.

From his past.

His mother.

TBC...

* * *

_A/N: Be kind. Review. Criticism and flames are equally appreciated, but I like criticism mor__e. :) It's the only way to know if you're interested and my only way to improve._


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